Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Oh what tangled webs we weave, when first we practice to deceive!”
Marmion by Walter Scott (1808)

June 10, 2023

Ginny was lying on her bed, gazing out the window, when Charlie peeked around the doorframe.

“See any dragons out there?”

“None yet,” said Ginny, as Charlie plopped down next to her.

“I wonder if you’ll even have time for your poor brother this summer,” he said, “since all of these friends of yours are going to be here.”

Ginny didn’t respond, the butterflies in her stomach fluttering again.

This summer, Charlie was on San Juan Island in the state of Washington, tucked up in the far northwest corner of the far northwest state, studying a pygmy dragon species endemic to the region with a group of graduate students. In the school year, he taught as a professor in the College of Magical Creatures at Cambridge University.

Charlie and Ginny had a very elderly aunt who owned this big drafty house, and she had let Charlie use it the last few summers on the condition that he care for the house and gardens and that he keep a room ready for her, should she decide to stay for a weekend.

Among Charlie’s group of graduate students was Luna Lovegood, who was working on her master’s thesis. Ginny had discovered this the night before, reading over Charlie’s class list as they ate dinner. When she had come to Luna’s name she had spat out her mouthful of wine directly onto Charlie.

“Ginny, what is your DEAL?” he had spluttered, mopping his face with a napkin, and rereading the class list: “ah.”

Ginny bounced off the faded quilt and threw an arm around her brother. “I’m sure you’ll see plenty of me. I’m just down the hallway from you all summer.” She reached up to rub a fist on his head. Charlie laughed, swatting her hand away.

Ginny’s Quidditch team, the Holyhead Harpies, had finished up their spring training. The draft for new players didn’t take place until the fall, and then they’d start up practice again with the whole team. Ginny, with the summer off, had taken a cross-Atlantic Portkey, and then another one across the continent to visit her brother for an indefinite amount of time. She’d need to be back home by September, to face Harry and sort out her life, but she had months to figure that out and the wide blue summer days stretched ahead of her.

Through the window, the Puget Sound’s deep blue waters reflected as though thousands of mermaids were holding up mirrors as they combed their long kelpy locks. Ginny actually thought she had spotted a mermaid when she and Charlie had walked to the beach earlier, but with the harbor seals popping their heads up every few minutes, it was hard to be sure.

Ginny was nervous about seeing Luna. Ginny had just gotten to the island two nights ago, but Luna hadn’t yet arrived for her summer quarter research yet.

It had been quite a while since they had last seen one another. Over four years. Ginny and Luna had been inseparable their sixth year of Hogwarts, staying up late into the night in the Room of Requirement, plotting against the school administration, spying for the Order of the Phoenix, researching field medicine to help students who had been abused by the people who were supposed to be educating them.

So often Ginny had fallen asleep in the Room of Requirement, not daring to show her face in the castle halls after she had set another rebellion into motion. She couldn’t tell her parents about the punishments; she needed to be there, she needed to fight. Luna had been beside her all night in the Room when she cried with worry wondering how Ron, Harry, and Hermione were doing, off in the wild. When she wondered if those three would ever be able to fix the mess the world was in, wondered how she could accept her own powerlessness. Luna would brush her long red locks and braid them with gentle fingers, and Ginny would fall asleep on her bed that the Room remade for her with fresh sheets, with Luna curled up behind her, holding her.

Nothing felt more natural than the November night Ginny turned around in the cool linen sheets and facing Luna, ran her hands up Luna’s back, and Luna let out a little sigh and pulled her closer and their lips found one another's’.

And from then on, they spent every night in the Room, and eventually the room caught on and made a little sleeping loft with heavy velvet curtains covered in embroidery of stars and dragons and mermaids. They were far from the only people sleeping most nights in the Room of Requirement, there were other little bunk beds and sleeping nooks, and they certainly weren’t the only wartime couple in the group. Everyone in Dumbledore’s Army knew they were together, and besides, Harry had ended things before he left. Once or twice some fringe member of DA would give Ginny a dirty look, seeing her with Luna, but when Dean or Neville or Lavender or Hannah would pass her in the Room after their meetings, and hug her, she knew her friends didn’t blame her for straying from Harry. She blamed herself, of course, but that was another matter.

But those winter nights, when the wind was howling, and Ginny had taken off her Disillusionment charm, when she was done spying and relaying information to the Order, done collaborating with Peeves to cause as much disruption to the Carrows as possible, done writing coded letters reassuring her mom, she would climb the old wooden ladder into the loft and crawl straight into Luna’s arms.

Then, the Battle was done, Fred was buried, and among many other things, Harry was back. Ginny left the wreckage of the castle with all her surviving friends. They had stayed at the castle for a few days, conjuring coffins, burying the dead by Dumbledore’s grave. Alicia Spinnet and Angelina Johnson worked with some of the professors to get the train tracks repaired enough to carry everyone away from the wreckage of the castle. It was the quietest train ride Ginny had ever taken on the Hogwarts Express. She didn’t sit with Harry or Luna, who were in a compartment with Neville and Hermione. She sat with her family. From London, Harry came to the Burrow with the Weasleys and Hermione.

During the long summer days Harry and Ginny (and usually Ron and Hermione) paddled in the swimming hole, ate ice cream at the shop in Ottery St. Catchpole, took train rides to see their friends at the seaside. Sometimes Ginny and Harry would stay the night in London, in Harry’s old room at 12 Grimmauld Place. In the morning they would go to a Muggle museum or Kensington Garden. Every Sunday, Harry and Ginny, and often Ron and Hermione and any other friend who was around would Floo to Andromeda Tonks’ house and they would all take turns holding the baby. They weren’t very helpful, not knowing much about babies, but Harry was determined to learn how to change diapers and feed baby Teddy.

The loss of Fred was the big hole in the center of everything, but when Harry and Ginny would lie on an old quilt in the garden of the Burrow and gaze at the stars, kissing, hands slipping under shirts, under the elastic waistbands of their summer running shorts, the butterflies in Ginny’s stomach would flutter to life. Falling asleep with the night smells of flowers and the sound of gnomes whispering, waking up at dawn with the chickadees, Ginny felt like their lives had been worth saving. The hopelessness she so often felt was not eradicated, but faded during those golden days and soft nights.

There were feelings of emptiness and disconnection, of course, there was guilt and there was anguish, but with so many causes, Ginny wasn’t sure where each feeling came from, where it started or where it ended.

Hermione and Ron were joined at the hip that summer as well, traveling back and forth from England to Australia to track down Hermione’s parents, and snogging like their lives depended on it all over the Burrow and garden. Ginny’s mum, who once had been more puritanical didn’t bat an eye. Losing Fred had changed her. At first Ginny and Harry didn’t even hold hands in front of everyone else, but when Ron kept setting a blushing Hermione practically on his lap on the couch when they listened to the radio in the evenings, Ginny began to suspect that their mum was ready for grandbabies. Harry and Ginny made gagging gestures whenever they caught Ron’s eyes.

Then they were back on the train: Ginny, Neville, Luna, Harry, Ron and Hermione, all seventh years at once. Over the summer Luna had mostly been visiting relatives in Sweden, and Ginny wasn’t sure what to do, so she sent her a few postcards and didn’t mention Harry at all, but neither did she reference their own relationship. Ginny had confessed everything to Hermione over the summer. Ginny hoped that Luna would just accept her and Harry being back together. “Consider an honest conversation,” Hermione had advised to no avail. Ginny and Luna never discussed it, only spending time together in their larger group. That year the old members of Dumbledore’s Army had parties in the Room of Requirement, they studied there, they listened to music and cried there, but the Room never made that sleeping loft with those embroidered curtains again.

As Captain of the Quidditch Team, Ginny had lots of time away from the dynamics of their friend group. On the pitch, Harry was just the Seeker, not her boyfriend, and Ginny ran the team hard that year. She drove herself into the ground and expected the rest of the team to try to keep up. Harry said he was getting muscles in places he didn’t know existed.

Luna, who was helping write and edit the Quibbler from the castle, was busy collecting interviews from students about their wartime experiences, first-person accounts that would one day appear in history textbooks. She also quietly started a Hogwarts Quidditch column in the Quibbler, which seemed to mostly feature the Gryffindor captain.

Along with all their friends, both girls were studying hard for their N.E.W.T.s. A year before they weren't sure if they would have a future. Their lives weren't guaranteed, and even if they survived another year, what would the world look like if they didn't take down You-Know-Who? The skies had cleared, and once again they had to study and plan ahead. They had gotten used to surviving another day, sometimes another hour or minute. Refocusing their perspectives to be able to imagine years, decades?

Amidst all this, Ginny felt she had successfully relegated Luna to the past and Harry to the present.

Except that one time.

But Harry never found out, and Luna never mentioned it, never even alluded to it. Sometimes Ginny would convince herself it was just a dream. Merlin knows similar things had happened often enough in her dreams.

*
The past
*
Back at the castle for seventh year, Luna had never felt more disoriented. She had spent six years at Hogwarts, mostly minding her own business, with a few friends, never the center of attention unless people were laughing at her. The year before she, Ginny, and Neville were respected and looked up to by members of Dumbledore’s Army, but most students were wary of them, and Slytherins had hated them viciously along with the Carrows, had actively tried to harm them. But now, she was popular. And it felt very strange.

Witch Weekly, Magical Her, students from different countries, brands, and radio shows were contacting her, along with Hermione, Ginny, Harry, Ron and Neville. The six of them had become the face of Voldemort’s downfall in the media. Their youth, friendship, and resilience added up to amazing human interest stories, the kind that sold out magazines, the interviews reprinted in the next issue for people who couldn’t get their hands on it the first go-round.

Harry was of course the most famous, but Neville was experiencing a renaissance, helped along by Harry, who in several interviews had pointed out that Neville had been the one to kill Nagini. Harry had given Katie Bell, who was starting a career in journalism, an exclusive interview in which he revealed that Neville was also the chosen one, kind of.

While Neville’s grandmother was pleased, Neville was less so. “Harry, just because you’re sick of being on the front page every day, doesn’t mean you can just sic them all on me! You saved the world; deal with the consequences.”

Witch Weekly had run a big story by Rita Skeeter titled “Zero to Hero: A Long Way up from the Bottom” that had relied mostly on anonymous sources to talk about Neville’s rise from a “bumbling tot pronounced a Squib at age 10 by the family’s healer,” to a “surprisingly dashing figure, who upon destroying the last Horcrux became the object of every young woman’s affection.”

Ginny, Ron, Harry and Hermione had a lot of interconnecting relationships binding them together. Hermione and Ginny were very close, as were Ron and Harry of course; Ginny and Ron were siblings; Harry and Hermione had been best friends for years; and then Ginny and Harry were together as were Ron and Hermione. Luna and Neville, though close with all four of them as well, were naturally a little bit on the outside of their dynamic, which was fine as they were very close themselves. Before seventh year, Luna would have said that Neville and Ginny were the people she was closest to. Now there was a big wall between her and Ginny, but Neville was still there.

On the Hogwarts Express that September, Ron had suddenly looked at Neville in their compartment around lunchtime.

“Wait, why are you here?” he said, through a mouthful of sandwich. “Didn’t you graduate last year?”

Hermione rolled her eyes. “Ronald, do you listen to anything besides the sound of your own voice?”

“I basically lived in the Room of Requirement,” said Neville. “The school didn’t hold N.E.W.T’s or anything, on account of the castle being blown up, and besides I don’t think I learned anything last year. I forgot pretty much everything besides Defense Against the Dark Arts spells.”

“Neville told us all about this when we went camping in June!” said Hermione, exasperated.

Hermione was Head Girl seventh year and she helped select a progressive set of Prefects. They worked with McGonagall to establish a pilot year of no passwords for the common rooms. Neville had been appointed Head Boy, but he mostly let Hermione call the shots.

“This year we will not be locking common rooms and our student body away from one another. We will shake away the clouds of obfuscation and see one another clearly. We are all students at one school, and our house divisions do not serve us,” Hermione had announced rather grandly at the Welcome Feast.

“We sit in our houses tonight for the Sorting, but until the Goodbye Feast in June, we will not separate into House Tables, but sit wherever we want. No one here is our enemy, but a future friend. ‘For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.’”

And so, Neville and Luna were often together in the Ravenclaw or Gryffindor common room, or sitting beside one another at mealtimes or in class. Neville had started designing a board game over the summer, and he and Luna were often to be found sitting in the watery light of the greenhouse, painting designs for his cards and boards. The concept was a Muggle role-playing game. Neville was starting with an American high school setting where the adventures would be things like going to a dance or being offered drugs behind the school bleachers.

“When this is ready, we’re going to roleplay as Muggle teenagers?” said Luna, as she painted a character for the guide book.

“Muggles have a game called Dungeons and Dragons,” Neville said. “One of my neighbors introduced me to it over the summer, and you pretend to be a human wizard or an elf warrior, or whatever. All these types of people that Muggles think are imaginary. Then you go and fight a dragon or whatever ‘imaginary creature.’”

“Which neighbor was this?”

“Kareem. We only played it a couple of times so I don’t fully get it, but I thought it would be fun to make it about Muggles since their version is about us.”

“I like Kareem,” Luna said. Then, glancing at her watch: “Aren’t you supposed to be in a Prefect meeting right now?”

“Shhh,” said Neville, dipping his brush in the water.

Neville had become a hot commodity. He had grown up from the small, cherubic, but clumsy little boy. He was tall, with surprisingly strong bone structure that had hidden for years behind round cheeks. Evidently Rita Skeeter had sold a lot of Witch Weeklys with her Neville coverage, because a month into school she wrote “Horcrux Breaker or Heart Breaker?” in which she claimed that Neville was engaged in an endless series of trysts and that classes were disrupted daily by fights and tears between the girls over Neville. Neville’s grandmother shortly thereafter sent him a letter in which she admonished, “the Longbottom charm and good looks are not to be used frivolously.”

Luna was constantly being asked if she was his girlfriend, or she would be buttered up by girls who were hoping that she would pass along a good word. Neville did go on a few dates with Hannah Abbott over the summer and the start of the school year, but that fizzled out quickly.

“She’s a good sort of a girl,” said Neville, one September night in the Astronomy tower. He and Luna were wrapped in blankets and looking out across the starry night sky. “I just don’t see it with her.”

“Do you like any of these girls? I’ve heard from about a dozen contenders who want to be your date to Hogsmeade on Saturday.”

“I just want to go with you,” Neville grumbled, setting his head down on his knees.

“Works for me,” said Luna.

“Want to meet up with Harry, et al? He and Ginny are going to leave around 10.”

“I guess,” said Luna, picking up the Astronomy essay she had been working on, and peering through the darkness at what she had written.

“We don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Neville said, sympathetically.

Neville was the only one Luna had confided in about Ginny. Most of the DA knew that there was something going on with them, but the only one who Luna had wanted to talk about it with was Neville.

“Do you think Harry knows?”

“He must have heard something,” said Neville. “But I think most people are trying to move on from last year.”

Luna gazed out at the stars reflected in the lake. “I’m not. I mean, I am, I should be trying. It’s just hard.”

***

After they all graduated, Harry and Ginny spent the summer renovating Grimmauld Place. Harry had lots of connections and favors he could call in, and the house became unrecognizable. Harry had long since freed Kreacher, who was collecting a salary and spending lots of time helping Bill and Fleur at Shell Cottage with their new baby. When Kreacher was in London he would fuss at everyone, make an enormous meal of pie and soup and then spend his evening watching Muggle television in his room, having finally been convinced to move out of the airing cupboard.

Harry and Ginny and assorted friends and family tore down walls, cut holes for new windows and skylights, finished getting rid of the Dark objects that had once filled the house, and soon the place was gleaming wooden floors, burnished copper pots, and as much natural light as you can hope to get in London.

Harry let all his friends who wanted to stay there choose rooms. Somehow each time another friend expressed interest, they seemed to find another brass doorknob in a hallway they swore used to be shorter. (“Maybe the house was tired of all those old poisons and house elf heads, maybe it didn't like being evil. Maybe it's saying thank you," Luna said.) His friends insisted that they at least chip in for the property taxes and the water bill, but as the house had long since been paid off, no one paid any rent, which was a welcome relief after the stress of the last few years. Ginny and Harry had their own rooms, but they still ended up in the same bed most nights.

In a dusty shop in Diagon Alley, Ginny found a vintage wallpaper for her room: unicorns, glowing fairies, mermaids and dark forest. On days when the gray haze that had descended on her ever since the war, and really ever since she was eleven and possessed by Tom Riddle, was particularly thick, she would lie under the quilt her mum had made her and watch the unicorns canter among the fairies.

Harry decorated his room with Sirius’ old posters, Gryffindor pennants, snapshots of his friends, and old photographs of his parents and Sirius and Remus. And while Ginny was often battling old monsters, so too was Harry. He sometimes stayed in his room for days at a time. Hermione, Ginny or Ron would bring him cups of tea and toast they had enchanted to stay warm, but they often went untouched.

The British and Irish Quidditch League had taken a hiatus at the peak of the war, but was coming back strong. Ginny had the summer off before she was drafted. Like all players straight out of Hogwarts, she was often on the bench her first season, but Harry and Ron were always in the audience.

Chapter Text

June 11

“So where’s Harry?” Charlie asked as the siblings knelt in the dewy garden, collecting lettuce, chives, basil and little sun-sweet cherry tomatoes from the garden for that night’s dinner.

“He’s just started at the Auror Academy up in Edinburgh,” Ginny said, snipping herbs with tarnished silver scissors she had found in a drawer. “I wonder if he’ll stay. I still think he’d do better to go get a teaching certificate.”

Harry had graduated last year with his undergraduate degree from the Magical Wing of University College London, with an emphasis on Resisting the Dark Arts. Ginny had encouraged him to go to graduate school for teaching, but Harry’s old dream of being an Auror was still happening, at least for now. 

The fight around that decision had propelled Ginny to San Juan Island. 

“Harry, you’ve been fighting dark magic ever since you found out you’re a wizard and yes, you’ve helped everyone else, but what about you? Almost every night you’re talking in your sleep, kicking and shouting. You need a break from fighting.” 

“Everything has been calm for the last five years, Ginny--”

“No--”

“It’s not quite as dangerous anymore. I’ve said I’m going to be an Auror since I was fifteen. You can’t say this is a surprise.”

“But do you even want to fight, though? Why can’t you do something for yourself? You don’t need to put your life on the line every day for the rest of your life! Why can’t we just relax and enjoy the peace you earned?”

“We know from the Order’s intelligence that there are still Death Eaters to be rounded up!” 

“Wait a moment, which is it? Are the streets of Britain calm and not-at-all dangerous or are there Death Eaters lurking everywhere? I don’t want to live with violence every day! I’m tired of worrying about you getting hurt and I don't want you to hurt anyone!”

“Just because you’re satisfied playing a game for a living, doesn’t mean I can waste my life!”

At that last remark from Harry, Ginny had marched out of Grimmauld Place, apparated to the Burrow, and made plans to get away for the summer.

But it wasn’t just that one fight that sent her out the door. She could have stayed. She could have talked it out. But Ginny had found herself picking fights more and more often. She sometimes felt trapped in this relationship that was constantly splashed across magazine covers and followed by cameras. Sometimes when Harry was close to her, she just wanted to be far, far away.

“Ginny..” Charlie paused from picking tomatoes, a question in his eyes.

“Harry and I are taking a break,” Ginny said. “I think I’ve got enough for the salad.”

She dusted off her bare knees, picked up the basket of vegetables and headed back into the house. She got out the wooden cutting boards and cast iron pans. It seemed like their great aunt’s kitchen supplies were as old as she was. The rusty cheese grater seemed to be possibly older than the hundred year old house.

Her phone buzzed on the counter. It was a text from Hermione: Let me know how you’re settling in when you get a chance! Ron's bought a new broomstick and he's flying it inside and driving me crazy

She replied: typical Ronald! how you put up with him i don't understand. Have you heard from Harry? He’s not texting me back

Hermione: yes he’s messaged in the group chat with me and Ron. He seems okay? I’m glad you’re taking some time for yourself. I think it’s healthy to get some space and time apart. Try new things!

“I’m headed out to meet the ferry,” Charlie called through the echoey passageway.

“Sounds good! I’m about to start the pasta water, so it should all be ready when you’re back!” said Ginny..

----

The past

Luna could track time passing through Ginny’s hair. Ginny at eleven years old, when Luna noticed that red hair peeking out from the brim of the sorting hat. Luna was worried for her new friend that year, when Ginny’s hair was so vibrant against her pale face as she fell deeper under the spell of an enchanted diary. 

At twelve, the red of her hair almost matched her blush when she charmed a Valentine for Harry. 

At thirteen, her braids whipping around the Quidditch pitch, Luna watching from the stands where she worked on homework. 

At fourteen, hair falling into her eyes as they brewed a Distraction Potion together, Luna chopping mint leaves, Ginny stirring clockwise, counterclockwise.

Ginny at fifteen: a cascading red ponytail and laughing dark eyes, with half the school in love with her. Flying on Thestrals to the Ministry of Magic, her hair tangling in the wind. 

At sixteen, hair in the french braids that Luna wove at night, tendrils and whirls of hair that escaped as they slept curled together in the sleeping loft. 

At seventeen, with Harry’s fingers idly twirling the ends of her ponytail as they all studied in the library. 

At eighteen, hair as long and as wet as a mermaid, making tea in the kitchen after a shower at Grimmauld Place. The year after they graduated, Luna spent her time in London learning about different university programs she could apply for, and her acceptance letter to the College of Magical Creatures at Cambridge arrived at their mailbox at Grimmauld Place. 

Ginny’s hair in a braided crown around her head with wildflowers tucked in, lupine, roses, bluebells when she threw Luna a going-away party at the Burrow. That had been the last time she had seen Ginny’s hair in person, though she did save the copy of Her Quidditch where Ginny’s new pixie cut was the front cover.  

Luna’s own hair was a thick white blonde bob, a messy pile of waves and long wispy bangs that just covered her transparent eyebrows and shadowed her cornflower blue eyes. That pale bob stood out against the stormy afternoon sky in the fall of her freshman year at Cambridge. Luna’s blue woolen sweater that would have swallowed someone shorter kept her warm against the cold mist. It may have been that Ginny and her mum whispered a few extra enchantments when Molly helped Ginny piece the sweater together, because even on the coldest day, Luna found that this sweater was always warm enough. 

Luna didn’t have to start from the ground-up when it came to making friends in Cambridge. The magical community was after all, not that large, and smaller yet in the aftermath of the war. Hermione had been accepted into the College of Wizarding Law and started right after Hogwarts. Neville had also applied and gotten into the College of Herbology and Botany during seventh year. Hannah Abbott was in the College of Magical Arts and Sciences, studying Communication. Dean Thomas was studying Engineering Through the Application of Charms and Transfiguration. Padma Patil was studying Magically Enhanced Biochemistry. 

The Magical University of Cambridge was about ten years into integration with the Muggle colleges, so the magical students took classes with their Muggle counterparts when it was applicable to their degrees. Dean and Hermione wanted to learn more about Muggle mathematics, although they quickly found Calculus to be a little beyond them as neither of them had seriously studied math since primary school. Hannah’s classes were half Muggle and half Magical. Alongside her study of Magical Creatures, Luna took English literature classes and fine arts as electives.

The Magical dormitories were in an old stone building that looked like a castle, with enormous stained glass windows in the stairwells and a turret. On the upper levels the students lived in single rooms with big misty windows and old cast iron radiators. The rooms had built-in bookshelves with old novels and textbooks left behind by generations of students. The advisors taught everyone a few good charms for mold abatement on move-in day. The upperclassmen also explained (with some condescension) that the freshmen’s days in no-technology-hell (“or call it Hogwarts,” one tech-savvy witch smirked) were over. The entire campus had WiFi and due to the Muggle-Magical integration program, it was advisable to procure a laptop.  

“I thought the magic interfered with Muggle technology,” Neville had said upon hearing this spiel his freshman year. 

“Bullshit,” said an upperclassmen. “Those old professors at Hogwarts just can’t be arsed to install electricity. Imagine Professor Snape dealing with a WiFi modem, Godric rest his soul.”  

“I’d rather not,” Neville muttered.

The ground floor of the dormitory was a cafe that opened up to a garden with mossy wooden benches and gnomes hiding behind the overgrown bushes. Inside, the hardwood floors were covered in threadbare Persian rugs, and the bright red espresso machine trumpeted out steam continuously. The scratchy old record player was next to a communal milk crate of records. The whole place smelled of roast coffee beans and fresh bread, and the smell often wafted up to the dorms above. The cafe didn’t serve many pastries, just cookies and they made a big cauldron of the daily soup to go with a wide array of homemade breads: sourdough, naan, focaccia, and brioche, rye, challah. It was always changing, but always delicious. 

Houseplants covered the bookshelves and tables where students spent the day, reading the Prophet, debating politics, writing a last minute essay. The cafe was open from 6 am ‘til 10 pm, so nearly every Magical student found themself in there at some point of the day. And that was where Luna met Rolf Scamander on the first day of school. Or, rather, was reacquainted with him. 

“Luna Lovegood!” 

Luna jumped a little from as she reached the front of the line.  The barista was smiling brightly at her. He was a boy her age. Under his apron he was wearing a baggy jumper and faded blue jeans. He was tall, a half a foot taller than her 5’10,” with tousled, sandy curls. 

“Do you remember me? Rolf Scamander. My grandpa was a friend of your dad’s. I don’t think we’ve met since we were thirteen.”

Luna considered his face. 

“I remember you,” she said, tilting her head. “Your grandpa and dad teach and do their research in the United States right? We came to visit you when Dad planned our trip to the Finger Lakes.”

“That’s right,” Rolf said, “I’m a dual citizen -- British and American --,  but we’ve lived in the US my entire life while Dad and Grandad teach at different American universities, so I went to Ilvermorny.”

“And now you’re going to class here?”

“That’s right!” he said brightly, “and working at the cafe to get a little extra cash. What will you be having?”

Luna walked to class through the mist, sipping her lavender syrup oat latte with a smile.

Luna wasn’t surprised that afternoon when she walked into the lecture hall of her Magical Anatomy and Physiology class and saw Rolf Scamander sitting in the second row. 

“Fancy seeing you here,” Luna said. “Did you get a discount on the textbook, considering your grandpa wrote it?”

Rolf laughed. “Better yet, I have my dad’s copy with all the notes he took when Granddad taught his own Magical Anatomy and Physiology class.”

“Looks like I’ve found my study buddy,” Luna said, settling down next to him.

And Rolf was a great study buddy. Despite being miles ahead of everyone in class (besides Luna) he was willing to help everyone else. He was really excited to meet Luna’s Hogwarts friends and her hallmates, and introduced Luna to other international students all over campus. Soon he and Luna were the center of their own group of British and American friends. 

Luna fell into an easy routine for her freshman year. Rolf made botanical simple syrups for the cafe with herbs he grew in the garden and ones he foraged from his long countryside rambles he took by foot and on bike. Every morning he handed Luna her oat milk latte with some delicious syrup he had concocted, and she sat at a table for an hour or two, reading the Quibbler, writing some letters, finishing up homework, or working on research. Sometimes her friends from Hogwarts or from her new classes would spot her and stop to chat. Then Luna would start the day’s classes and on her way to the Magical Anatomy and Physiology class, her heart would beat a little faster. When she saw him sitting in his usual spot, she couldn’t help the big silly grin that would cross her face. During lectures, she’d get distracted watching the muscles of Rolf’s forearm as he took notes.

By the beginning of October, he’d asked her out to dinner, and at the Cambridge Halloween feast he asked her to be his girlfriend. 

---------

Four years later, they had both been accepted into the Master’s Program of the college. In a stereotypically boyish move, Rolf wanted to do his master’s work on dragons, while Luna was continuing her work with merpeople. When Rolf saw Charlie Weasley’s small study abroad program on San Juan Island with its focus on the Salish Sea Dragon he showed it to Luna. Luna knew of a large merpeople community living in the Puget Sound, so she immediately wrote an email to Charlie to ask if she could do some independent study with his group. Once they were accepted, Luna asked Neville to house-sit and take care of their large collection of magical houseplants over the summer. Neville, who was living in yet another cramped and moldy flat-share as he did PhD work on Magical Botany, was more than happy to oblige. 

“You know, Luna,” Neville had said thoughtfully at their last brunch together before the summer program, sitting together in the kitchen of Luna’s flat, looking at the window sills critically. ”I would have thought I’d finally have learned how to stop the black mold from taking over, in all these years of study. Your house has far less than mine. How do you do it?” 

“I suppose you’re studying plants, not fungus,” said Luna with a shrug. “We just bought a Muggle dehumidifier.”

“I wonder if there’s a way to make a potion you could apply to the caulking...”

“Please don’t do any weird spells or experiments on our apartment while we’re gone, Neville,” said Rolf who was passing through with a pile of shirts for his suitcase. 

“Okay, just because I wanted to help your Christmas cactus, which was yellowing, floppy, and nearly dead--”

“Yes, it was very impressive, Nevv, but the thing is, there’s just not really space for a seven-foot tall Christmas cactus in our flat--”

--

Though Rolf had originally been thrilled to meet Neville, he had seemed a little disappointed that at Luna’s Hogwarts get-togethers it was usually just Neville, Hannah, Dean, and occasionally Padma. When Rolf and Luna had first met, and they all lived in the dorms, they had seen Hermione all the time along with the rest of the Hogwartians, but after a few years of undergrad, most everyone had moved off-campus. 

“Weren’t you good friends with Harry, Ron and Ginny as well as Hermione?” he asked one night while she was brushing their teeth after a long dinner party, during which she, Rolf, a few of his buddies and her Hogwarts friends had gotten through several bottles of wine. 

“Yeah,” she said, spitting into the sink and rinsing off her toothbrush.

“How come they never come to our dinner parties?” Rolf asked, holding his toothbrush without any seeming intention to use it.

“Well,” she said, pausing in her tooth-brushing. “As you know, sometimes Hermione can make it, but she’s usually busy studying or going to visit Ron. Since he’s all the way in California, she has to travel to see him there or they meet in London at Grimmauld Place so they can hang out with Harry and Ginny. But we do see them sometimes! Ron and Hermione came over just a few weeks ago! But yeah, I haven’t seen a lot of Harry or Ginny in a while.”

“Did you have a falling out with them? I don’t think you’ve ever explained why you don’t hang out with them.”

“No, just not a lot in common right now, I guess. We used to go to more Holyhead matches and see them there, don’t you remember? I just haven’t bought season tickets in a while.”

“I guess I just thought you were closer with them or something. Like when Her Magic invited you to do that cover story ‘Catching Up With Heroes’ you didn’t even go.”

“Did Harry or Ginny even do that interview? I feel like it’s mostly Ron who always accepts those invites.”

“I just think you should just work on maintaining your old friendships. ‘Make new friends, but keep the old.’”

“I see Neville practically everyday!”

“Yeah, but more than just him,” said Rolf.

“I get coffee with Hermione, practically every week .”

“Well, that’s good,” said Rolf, seeming cheered, and finally putting toothpaste on his brush. “I don’t think you had told me that it was that often. I just don’t want you to lose such good friends.”

Chapter Text

June 12 

Rolf and Luna had spent the first few weeks of the summer traveling with their dads in the Redwoods and Yosemite with a group of Magizoologists, so by the time they were on board the Washington State Ferry to Friday Harbor, they were already a bit sunburnt. Their families had seen them off at the ferry terminal in Anacortes. 

Xeno was particularly excited about the travelogue he had been writing for the Quibbler as they did their West Coast trip. “I’m a foreign correspondent,” he kept saying, as Luna and Rolf rolled their eyes. 

“Have fun,” Xeno said, squeezing Luna and Rolf in a tight hug.

“Discover something important for us,” added Mr. Scamander.

Charlie had recommended that everyone ride the ferry over so they could get an understanding of the surrounding geography and see if they could spot any interesting magical creatures from the viewing deck.

At the terminal in Friday Harbor, Luna and Rolf walked off the ferry with their backpacks and bicycles and spotted Charlie holding a big sign that read “CHARLIE!”. There were eight graduate students, plus Charlie. They formed an informal circle as fellow passengers slowly cleared away. Luna recognized a face or two from Hogwarts, but as the program was international, the majority of the group was new to her. 

Once Charlie had checked his class list, which seemed to be scrawled on the back of a receipt, peering bemusedly at it when he asked their names, he started off the introductions.

“Well, as you all know,” he gestured weakly with the sign he was still holding at his side, “I’m Charlie. Charlie Weasley, Magical creatures professor, specializing in dragons. I’ve got you all gathered here because San Juan Island is the best place in the world to study the Salish Sea Dragon. In my free time I like to -- um -- study dragons...”

Among the students there was Terry Boot, fellow Ravenclaw, who Luna was fairly close with at the end of their time at Hogwarts, as he was also in Dumbledore’s Army and spending most of his time in the Room of Requirement during the year the Carrows ran the school. 

There was also Romilda Vane, another one-time member of Dumbledore's Army. Romilda had occasionally joined in on plots to undermine the Carrow administration, but still went to classes and wasn’t in the core group of rebels who had to live in the Room of Requirement. On that last day, she had fought alongside everyone else in the Battle of Hogwarts.

Despite these cooperative traits described above, Romilda was already finding fault with Charlie, specifically his sign, which she had taken from him and was examining. “You made it on the back of a cereal box. Is this written in crayon?” She pondered that for a moment, while Charlie fidgeted. “To be real, Charlie, you’ve only emailed us, like, twice. I didn’t remember your first name. So writing YOUR name doesn’t make a good sign for a meeting point. I only came over here because I saw Terry.”

“Well, he was hardly going to write ‘Magical Zoology 451 - Place and Process: Studying Sea Dragons’ on the sign, for all the Muggles to see, now was he?” asked Persephone Clearwater. 

Persephone Clearwater was another of the Hogwartians. She looked familiar to Luna, who had known her little sister Penelope, albeit briefly, at Hogwarts. Persephone was working on her PhD in Magical ecology, and was based at Stanford. She knew Charlie from Hogwarts, as they had been in the same class year, though different houses. 

“Of course, I wouldn’t still be in school after all these years, but I was a Healer for a while. I went to the Magical medical school at Columbia, maybe you remember hearing about that... It was printed in the Hogwarts alumni magazine when I graduated summa cum laude...” 

Margaret de la Cruz was in Rolf’s class at Ilvermorny and next to her was Maude Green, who was a year older than Rolf at Ilvermorny, but remembered him. (“I could hardly forget the man who handed us the Quidditch championship with that fumble on your last pitch!) 

Sam Roblee was small, shy, and Canadian, with light strawberry blonde hair, including his eyebrows and eyelashes, and lots of freckles. He had also gone to Ilvermorny, but neither Rolf, Margaret, nor Maude seemed to remember him very clearly. 

“I was the year above Maude and two years older than Rolf and Margaret,” he said expectantly. 

The other Ilvermorny students hemmed and hawed and a silence drew out as they tried to remember anything about him.

“I was mostly in the library stacks,” he said, dropping eye contact and toeing at the ground forlornly. “I was mostly friends with the spiders...”    

“An arachnid man, I like that!” said Charlie enthusiastically. Then, clapping his hands together, “let’s get moving.”

Everyone attached their bikes (Charlie had listed bicycles as required on the supplies list) to the rack on Charlie’s van and they rattled off to the house in the bright summer evening. Driving around the perimeter of the island, the water beyond was pure shining cobalt, the hillsides blanketed in orange California poppies. Violet green swallows dipped and swooped through the tall yellow grasses. 

When Charlie pulled up to the big Victorian house, the students squeezed out of the backseats and started carrying in their baggage.

Luna was struggling through the narrow hallway past the kitchen to the staircase (her duffel bag was wider than the hallway) when she caught sight of someone chopping up lettuce near the sink. Luna’s heart skipped a beat.

Luna would recognize that head of hair anywhere. Bangs brushing her dark eyebrows, short in the back and coming to the sweetest little point at the nape of her neck. A big cut-off t-shirt for the Holyhead Harpies hanging off one freckled shoulder.

Ginny peeked around from where she was making the pasta primavera and did a double take, dropping the tongs she was holding.

“Luna,” Ginny said.

Luna dropped her duffel bag and crossed the kitchen. Terry, walking behind her holding his own enormous bag, promptly tripped over Luna’s discarded luggage with a squeak of indignation. Luna, who was already hugging Ginny, didn't notice.

“It’s so good to see you,” Luna said. 

“You too.”  

 ---

Ginny and Luna became friends their first year of Hogwarts. Actually, their first day.

Since they had both grown up around Ottery St. Catchpole, Ginny and Luna had already known each other before the school year began, but in that way of little kids who forget anyone they haven’t seen in six months. The girls had been introduced and reintroduced on those coincidental occasions where both Arthur and Xeno would decide some sunny Saturday was the perfect day to take their little girl into the village for an ice cream cone and they would bump into each other at the shop. “Surely you remember Luna?” Arthur would say. “She’s a little girl just your age? We saw her at our New Year’s party two years ago?” and Luna and Ginny would wave warily at each other and the encounter would be over before they could get over their shyness and have fun.

The summer before Ginny’s first year was when Fred, George and Ron went and broke Harry out of his aunt and uncle’s house and brought him home in her dad’s flying Ford Anglia. That August was mortifying and exciting and terrifying for Ginny. She was constantly on high alert, waking up already nervous about seeing Harry at breakfast. 

She wasn’t sure how she had ended up with such a debilitating crush on Harry. Growing up she heard his name in such reverent tones, and knew he was only one year older than herself, and would therefore one day see him at Hogwarts. She would see his picture on the front of the tabloids every now and then as he was spotted in his Muggle neighborhood. She would stare at those moving black and white halftone images in wonder, when she visited Wizarding shops with her mother. Then she, Arthur and Molly started to receive Ron’s scrawled letters home saying that he was friends with Harry and they lived in the same dormitory! Ginny was so excited she felt sick.

That summer, when they all went to Diagon Alley, Molly took Ginny to the Leaky Cauldron for a special lunch, just the two of them. (This had nearly been derailed by Harry’s unexpected journey to Knockturn Alley.) But the lunch was very exciting for Ginny who almost never had her mum all to herself.  Even with all her brothers out of the house during the school year, Molly was always busy volunteering, knitting, working in the garden, cooking. Besides that, they almost never ate out, with Molly stretching Arthur’s small paycheck with economical meals and fresh fruit and vegetables she grew.

As they shared golden triangles of a club sandwich at the Leaky Cauldron, Molly gave Ginny a serious look. “Ginny, I have something important for you to keep in mind at Hogwarts.”

“What is it, Mum?” Ginny asked, pausing with her chip mid-air above the ketchup.

“You remember Luna Lovegood? Our neighbor who lives over the hill in the Rook house?”

“Yes,” Ginny said, frowning as she tried to picture Luna’s face. They had last seen her at a Chudley Cannons match, on Ron’s birthday the year before he went to Hogwarts. 

“You remember that her mum died about a year and a half ago?”

Ginny nodded gravely. In theory she had known that one’s mum could die, but it had shocked her all the same. She remembered Luna’s mum more than Luna. Mrs. Lovegood had come over to the Burrow every few months to exchange homegrown vegetables and baked goods with her mum. She had generally given Ginny a little treat, like a freshly baked scone or biscuit and offered her a warm hug, saying, “I can’t believe how tall you’ve gotten! I’ll have to rush home and tell Luna about this! She’ll need to work extra hard on growing if she wants to keep up.”

“Poor Pandora,” Molly said, shaking her head. “I’m worried about Luna. She’s been growing up with just her dad now, and while Xeno is doing his best, a girl needs her mum. I hope you make sure to stick with Luna, at least a little this year at school. Sometimes just one good friend makes all the difference.”

It was on that same trip to Diagon Alley, that Lucius Malfoy slipped Tom Riddle’s old diary into one of Ginny’s new school books. 

Ginny had been planning to sit with Ron on the train, but when he and Harry didn’t make it onto the Hogwarts Express, she posted up with Fred and George and their friends. Around lunch time, she left her backpack in their compartment, and wandered shyly along the train. She saw Ron’s friend Hermione, who she had gotten to meet at Diagon Alley sitting with Neville Longbottom (another face she recognized from various get-togethers) and chatted nervously with them for a bit, then she kept going down the compartments until she saw Luna, sitting in the corner of a compartment surrounded by rowdy third years. Luna was sitting with her knees scrunched up, her face mostly hidden behind a book Ginny recognized as a popular Muggle novel about a princess. Unsure how to get her attention, Ginny hesitated outside the compartment for a moment and then slowly headed back to Fred and George. 

On the first day of school, Ginny had Transfiguration after breakfast. She entered Professor McGonagall’s classroom behind a few of the girls from her dormitory. She immediately spotted Luna, still deep in her novel, sitting in the very front row. Ginny came up to her table and asked, “Is this seat taken?”

*

“I don’t know why you’re always sitting by her,” Jessie Moore muttered as Ginny waved to Luna across the Great Hall at dinner. “She seems really weird. She’s always reading those goofy Muggle novels and staring into space.”

“I like her,” Ginny said with a shrug, helping herself to a big helping of buttery pot pie. 

Jessie and Demelza Robins were the two other girls in Ginny’s dormitory. Sometimes Demelza and Ginny would go down to the Quidditch Pitch, and borrow school broomsticks from Madam Hooch. As long as they found a place out of the way of the Quidditch teams they could practice tossing a Quaffle around. 

Jessie Moore had very straight, almost colorless hair and usually repeated the opinions of whoever was nearby. She was easily startled and liked being seen as “the nice one” of the first year Gryffindor girls. Whenever Ginny found something to complain about, Jessie always found a way to point out how ungrateful Ginny was being. Ginny eventually stopped saying much of anything to her beyond bland small talk about how the weather was good, the food was good, et cetera. As Jessie was usually with Demelza, Ginny didn’t bother confiding much in Demelza either. Before Hogwarts, if Ginny was feeling lonely, she’d write to Charlie who had always been her confidante, but that year he was traveling to a classified location to study a very endangered dragon, and wasn’t reachable.

Jessie and Demelza had gone to the same primary school in a London suburb. It was technically Muggle, but had a long-standing Magical student advisor, so it was a favorite choice of Wizarding families who didn’t want to homeschool. The headmaster had been informed about a few details of the Wizarding world so that he would be aware of what to do when outbursts of Magic took place. Jessie and Demelza were the only Magical students of their year, so they had grown up together with frequent playdates, sleepovers, and trips with each other’s families. 

With their friendship already established, and Jessie a bit territorial over Demelza, Ginny often felt left out in the dormitory and turned more and more to writing in her enchanted diary where there was someone to listen to her problems.

---

June 12

At dinner the first night all together on San Juan Island, there was the uneven flow of conversation that happens when some people know each other very well and some don’t really know anyone. 

Ginny served everyone heaping portions of pasta, with zucchini, pine nuts, basil, and squash flowers covered in fine dusty piles of grated parmesan. Her salad was a hit, especially with the foraged wood sorrel, plucked from the front yard. Charlie had picked up bottles of raspberry wine at the farmer’s market that Ginny turned ice cold with a quick tap of her wand. 

Ginny enjoyed talking to the North Americans. It felt like whenever she and the other Hogwarts alumni were all together, the talk invariably turned to the war, nightmares, friends who had died, children who were growing up without families. It was a lot simpler to talk to people around her age who seemed so at ease.

Rolf, in particular, was very friendly. He introduced himself when he first saw her in the living room when Charlie was having a pre-dinner cocktail hour, and was soon chatting with her about their mutual acquaintances. He had lots of information about all of the Cambridge-Hogwarts folks and was very easy to talk to.

Romilda Vane, however, was an unexpected thorn in Ginny’s side. Her eyes lit up when she saw Ginny and she immediately began scanning around and Ginny was sure that she was looking for Harry. 

Romilda sat down across from Ginny at dinner and asked her lots of questions.

“So where’s Harry this summer? I’ve heard he’s at the Auror Academy?”

“Yep.”

“I always said he’d make a good Auror, but also maybe Defense Against the Dark Arts professor? Honestly, every door in Britain is open to him, so he could really have any job he wanted. Or he could just do speaking tours like Muggle presidents do. They rake in money that way. I don’t know if I’d be an Auror if I were him. Probably like a mattress tester or something, but a really highly paid mattress tester.”

“Mm.”

“So you guys are doing, like, long distance this summer? That sounds tricky.”

“‘S’not so bad,” Ginny said noncommittally, drinking from her wine glass and trying to catch someone else’s eye. Luna was sitting next to Romilda, but unfortunately was chatting with Charlie and Terry Boot. Ginny focused on her ear, hoping she’d look their way.

“Of course if I had bagged Harry I would probably be making more use of it,” said Romilda, pausing to sip more wine. “Ginny, you could do so many brand endorsements if you felt like it. You two are definitely the most famous wizarding couple in England. Probably the world.”

“Hmm.”

Romilda pounded the table, “Sponsored content, it’s pretty much just free galleons. You could be the face of a perfume or design house. Of course, you’d be able to do that anyway, even without dating Harry.” She started ticking points on her fingers, “being famous on your own account with the war, and the whole Quidditch thing, and being hot.”

“I did a radio ad once, a couple of years ago,” said Luna. “It was for Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans. I ordered so much of it online my freshman year of uni that they took notice and recognized my name. Of course they didn’t pay me real money, just jelly beans.” She paused, twirling her fork around vaguely. “Which in a way was a blessing, because then I didn’t need such a large candy budget after that.” 

Romilda and Ginny looked at her for a moment, then Romilda ruffled her hair, “Ah, good old Luna. I missed you.”

*

At bedtime, Rolf and Luna were unpacking some more of their clothes, storing them in the big wooden bureaus that already had cedar and lavender sachets waiting on the liner paper. 

“I was having such a nice time chatting with Ginny,” said Rolf as he hung up his collared shirts. “I still don’t understand how you fell out of touch. Weren’t you good friends?”

“Yeah, I don’t really understand it myself,” said Luna.

“Well--”

“I’m going to go use the bathroom and get ready for bed,” she said before he could respond.

----

June 12

Later that night, Ginny was sitting with Charlie in the empty kitchen. Charlie was transcribing some data into a spreadsheet and Ginny was reading a book. Or at least trying to. When Charlie noticed that she had been staring into space for the last five minutes, he quietly closed his laptop.

“Want a cup of tea?” he asked, filling a powder blue kettle at the sink. “I’ve got some bedtime tea from this great shop in Diagon Alley.”

Ginny snapped back to reality. “Oh, sure.”

She watched as Charlie boiled the water and added the leaves to a few choice tea cups from Aunt Florence’s collection. “Let’s go out to the porch,” he said. 

The siblings, ensconced on the porch swing, looked out over the dark water. The lights from a distant ferry slowly drifted across the Sound. 

“I was wondering if you wanted to talk--” Charlie said, eyes still on the dark horizon.

“Not really,” said Ginny, blowing on her tea.

“--About why you’re here, or what’s going on with Harry.”

“Did Mum put you up to this?” Ginny asked, looking a little exasperated.

“No,” he said, only somewhat untruthfully. Molly had asked him to find out what was going on, but he had no intention of repeating anything Ginny said to her. “I was just curious about how you’re doing.”

Ginny set her tea on the little table beside her, sighed, and pushed off from the ground, setting the porch swing rocking.

“I don’t know how I’m doing.”

“Do you miss Harry?”

“No, not really,” Ginny said. “Is that mean? I just feel so suffocated sometimes. Like everyone just expects me to marry him and have a bunch of little ginger babies and give them overly thought-out names that pay tribute to everyone we’ve ever met, and make him dinner when he comes home from rounding up these last few old, washed-up Death Eaters. It’s so predictable.”

“Well, predictable doesn’t have to mean bad. You don’t have to surprise anyone with your choices as long as they make you happy.”

“I’m just tired of this sense I get from everyone, that, like, I have to take care of Harry’s emotions as a favor to the Wizarding community and he’s the big hero and I need to be the wind beneath his wings. If I don’t stay with Harry, then Harry might be sad, and if Harry’s sad everyone’s sad because he’s Harry.”

“That sounds like a lot of pressure,” said Charlie, sipping his tea. “It’s probably hard to separate how you feel about your relationship from the ways you feel that others perceive it.”

“Especially when you think about how many magazines and tabloids and gossip sites want to interview us every ten minutes about whether we’re having a baby or getting married or whatever else. So many Quidditch magazines have interviewed me and just when I think the focus isn’t going to be my relationship with Harry, of course I’m wrong. And that’s just the public! Even with our own family and friends, everyone wants me to date Harry. Just because I said I liked him when I was little, everyone thinks it’s so sweet and romantic for us to be together now. As if everyone should have to end up with who they said they’d end up with when they were eleven! Is it horrible to say that I’m just sort of tired of him? I feel like I hardly know myself outside of this relationship that’s, like, the public property of the whole Magical community.”

“I’m sorry you’re feeling like this, Ginny. I can promise you that I, at least, will not be even a little disappointed or upset if you two don’t stay together. I just want you to be happy.”

Ginny buried her face in her hands. “I just don’t know, Charlie. It’s not like I don’t love him. I do! I just don’t know if it’s the right thing for me anymore.” 

Chapter Text

June 12-17

Those first days on San Juan Island passed slowly, quickly, then slowly again. The students were busy from dawn until dusk, which in June was a very long time. They helped with the chores (those students less adept at household magic having a much more difficult time), they packed their lunches in the coolers Charlie had bought from Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes summer picnic line, then they all biked off to go visit whichever beach they were studying that day, coolers rattling on bike racks. 

The sea dragons loved to bask in the sunshine, and the hot weather made them sleepy, so on warm days it was easier to sneak up and catch one. They would do the gentle stunning spell Charlie had perfected for his PhD research, then they would measure and weigh the dragon, examine its teeth, see if there was a loose scale for collection, slip on a tracking device, and release it. The dragons were about the size of a weasel, with beautiful blue and green iridescent scales. 

If they saw you trying to catch them, they would snarl which did release a little puff of poison, but unless you were unusually sensitive it would take the equivalent of two hundred sea dragon snarls to kill you outright. One puff of smoke generally made you feel like you had inhaled campfire smoke, but smelled curiously of overripe banana. Charlie had plenty of antidote in his bag, and they all took a teaspoon if they were snarled at, as the long term effects of constantly getting little puffs of poison weren’t known.

After Terry Boot got the group’s inaugural whiff of poison, on a sunny rocky beach, Charlie quickly got out his bottle of antidote.

“If it’s any consolation, Terry,” he said, handing Terry the little cup of amber liquid, “Salish Sea Dragon poison fetches a pretty penny among potion-makers. They only give out two or three permits a year to collect the poison from the dragons. It goes for about 600 galleons per vial.”

“Can I cough it up into a vial or something?” Terry asked hopefully.

“No..”

“Besides, even if you could, wouldn’t you get in trouble if you were trying to sell the poison without a permit?” pointed out Persephone.

“Yeah, you would,” said Charlie, scratching his ear.

“So, like, why did you even say that, Charlie?” said Romilda. “Are you trying to entrap us?”

“No one was suggesting that,” said Persephone, turning to look at Romilda, with an annoyed expression.

Luna had been in contact with the Black Lake mermish chief to find out about her connections to the Puget Sound community, but knowing mermish culture, she wasn’t about to swim down there uninvited, so she made observations from shore where she occasionally saw a head pop up far away, among the playful harbor seals.

Charlie had also asked Luna if she’d like to do a few watercolor illustrations of the dragons for his paper, paying her with the budget from the university. So while Luna waited to hear back, she was often on the shore with the other students, trying to get good reference photos to work with on her phone.  

---

Luna’s academic interest in Magical creatures began on her journey to Hogwarts. As she went over to the rowboats with the other first years, she saw the thestrals over her shoulder. She pointed to them and said “Look!” and soon found out that the other new students weren’t seeing what she was seeing. She found her obsession with Magical creatures while laying the foundation for her reputation as the class oddball.

Luna looked forward to her classes that she shared with Ginny, who sat next to her every time. But she found that meals, her time in the common room and in the dorm often left her feeling lonelier than when it was just her in the Rook house all alone while her dad worked. 

She often found herself in the library or walking along the edge of the Forbidden Forest. At first she never dared walk into the shadow of the trees, remembering the warning from Professor Dumbledore, but as she continued her long walks along the forest as fall faded to winter, she sometimes saw flashes of animals moving. The thestrals came up to her and she began bringing them snacks, which they ate out of her hand. One twilight she even saw a unicorn slipping through the trees. She started to venture in slowly, walking beside the thestrals who seemed protective of her. She never went far into the forest, but she loved to be away from all of the people at the castle.

When she didn’t want to go into the forest, she would wrap herself in layers of sweaters and go to the lake at dawn with a hot cup of tea, to watch the merpeople poke their heads out of the water. Homeschooled by her mum and dad, Luna knew elementary Mermish and eventually made an acquaintance of a few of the mermaids who liked to rest near the rocky shore. 

--

June 14

Luna had little to do in those first few days besides work on her illustrations while she waited to hear from the local Mermish chief. After lunch on that first Wednesday, not feeling like doing more shore observation, and having sketched out a preliminary study of a dragon, she went off to explore, riding her bike all over the island. Back at the house for lunch, she wheeled her bike over to the old barn where they stored the bikes, watched over by a big fluffy cat, who Romilda had been calling Albert. She saw Ginny sitting in the shade of the tree, watering the tomatoes with an Aguamenti charm. 

She swallowed down the butterflies suddenly in her stomach, and walked over to sit down in the shade beside Ginny, who turned and smiled at her.

“Hi.” 

“It’s been a while,” said Luna, plucking a daisy.

“Yeah,” Ginny said, setting her wand down in the grass.

“How have you been?”

“Oh, you know,” she said, petting Albert who had come slinking by. “Playing Quidditch, the usual.”

“Still living at Grimmauld Place?”

“Um, maybe?” Ginny said, watching Albert wander off to bat at a dragonfly. “Harry and I are taking a break, that’s pretty much why I’m here. Please don’t tell anyone,” Ginny glanced at her. “I don’t want Romilda to hear about it.”

“Oh, okay,” Luna found her hand, “I’m sorry, Ginny.” 

After a minute, Luna asked, “do you remember the garden from sixth year?”

“Of course,” Ginny said.

*

6th Year

The time: sixth year, the place: the Room of Requirement, the action: Ginny sprawled out on the couch. Beside her Lavender Brown was idly wrapping a sprained wrist, while Hannah Abbott flicked through the propaganda-filled Daily Prophet (“Remember what Hermione always said? It’s good to know what the enemy is saying.”) The Room looked like a mix between a common room and a field hospital, with students in and out with boils and tics and gashes from a mix of attacks from Slytherins and teachers. 

Luna came in and sat beside Ginny, hair sodden, dirt under her nails. 

“I want to show you something,” she said with a shy smile that cut through Ginny’s grim mood. Luna, the best Disillusionist of the group, tapped them both on the head before they left. Disillusionment was always her job when they were pulling off a heist.

Ginny followed her out of the Room and they tiptoed down the halls, looking around corners to see who might be coming, and then out to the twilit, misty grounds. Luna took Ginny’s hand and led her behind the glowing greenhouses and showed her a patch of tilled earth, with little seedlings. There were small flickering lights close to the ground that bobbed away at their approach. Luna drew her close and crouched down. 

“Professor Sprout helped me and Neville with this earlier,” she said. “We’re growing potion ingredients. What we’ll need to make Polyjuice Potion and different healing draughts. Since they’re keeping tabs on Madam Pomfrey’s supplies, Neville and I decided we should take matters into our own hands.” She looked at Ginny apprehensively. “Of course, you might have ideas about what we should be growing, and Professor Sprout is also letting us use a corner of one of the seventh year greenhouses. Since Neville is planning to go to the College of Herbology and Botany at Cambridge, if the world doesn’t end, we think we’ll have a good excuse to be doing extra work if a Carrow or Snape comes poking their nose in.”

“What are those little lights?” Ginny asked, looking at the glowing figures that were now waiting at the edge of the forest. 

“Those are some fairies I’ve met recently,” Luna said. “They love syrup and jam. So I’m taking them plenty in exchange for them working a little atmospheric magic to help our plants grow all winter.”

“And now we’ll be able to restock our supply of Blood Clotting Draught and homemade Skele-Gro!” Ginny said, as she peered at the little labels Luna had picketed into the ground. “Luna, you're a genius!”

“Neville did most of it,” Luna said, her pale eyes reflecting the distant glow of castle lights.

Ginny stepped across the sodden ground, and held Luna’s hand in hers. 

“Thank you,” she whispered into Luna’s mouth as she reached up to kiss her.

Ginny wrapped both of her arms around Luna’s waist and kissed her again, with soft slightly parted lips. Luna dragged her lips gently over Ginny’s and the softest tongue touched Ginny’s own, and Luna’s sweater-covered arms wrapped around her. Ginny deepened the kiss and wrapped warm in Luna’s embrace whispered, “Is there anywhere we can go, to be alone?”

Luna smiled against Ginny’s mouth and once again led her by the hand, this time to the sixth grade greenhouses. 

“No one’s got any projects going on that need care at this time of evening,” Luna whispered as she tapped the entrance code on the lock covered in Runes. 

Ginny’s heart was skipping as she followed Luna. Luna spread some of the cushions they kept for gardening sit-upons on the ground. The gentle glow of the greenhouse lights dimmed with a whispered word and Luna’s wand. They knelt on the cushions together and Luna placed her hands on Ginny’s shoulders and with the gentlest suggestion of a push, Ginny lay down, a rare smile on her freckled face.

---

June 15

For the rest of the week, Luna came out with Ginny to tend to the garden.

Thursday was a perfect early summer day with a sky so blue it made up for the long gray winters of Western Washington. It was almost noisy in the garden with the sound of black-capped chickadees and song sparrows and house finches.

“A condition of our using the house is keeping the garden up,” Ginny explained.

“Who owns the house?”

“Our great aunt Florence. She moved to Seattle in about 1930 to marry her first husband. She’s one of those old Dumbledore-type magical folk who seems like she’s going to live forever. She has this house, her main house in Seattle, another on Vashon Island and one up on Vancouver Island, so she’s well set for summer properties.”

“Wow,” said Luna.

“She married several rich guys, both wizard and Muggle,” Ginny said, eyebrows raised. “And coincidentally, if you look up her Hogwarts records, she won several awards in Potions, and--,” Ginny continued, lowering her voice, “according to Mum she’s an expert love potioneer. So do with that what you will.”

Luna laughed. “Do you think love potions really work?”

“Ask Ron and Romilda Vane,” Ginny said, yanking out a stray dandelion. 

---

June 15 

That afternoon, Luna and Rolf took the van to Friday Harbor, the island’s village, to buy groceries. They had a long list as everyone in the house kept adding to it when they heard that Charlie was letting Luna and Rolf use the program’s credit card.

At King’s Market a voice called across the produce bins.

“Rolf, hey Rolf!” 

Headed toward them was one of the most beautiful people Luna had ever seen. Long caramelly brown hair flowing down her back, flawless tan skin, big doe eyes. She was wearing an oversized t-shirt and little baggy shorts, swinging a big metal water bottle covered in stickers in one hand. 

“Oh my god” said Rolf, an enormous bemused grin on his face. “Olivia? I don’t think I’ve seen you since Ilvermorny! Luna, meet Olivia.”

Olivia smiled with beautiful straight white teeth, “How nice to meet you,” she said, leaning in to hug them both. Luna noticed little tattoos up and down her toned arms. 

“Olivia and I, we played Quidditch together, we were in the student council, we founded the Ilvermorny Backpacking Society together,” Rolf said to Luna. “How come you’re on San Juan Island?”

“Jade and I moved here a few years ago to study Applied Magic in Organic Farming,” Olivia said, “and now I’m running a small strawberry farm.”

“Oh, how cool! Is Jade here?”

“No, it didn’t work out with us. She ended up moving back to Boston.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Rolf said. 

“Don’t worry about it, we broke up over a year ago. What are you guys doing here?”

“We’re here studying the Salish Sea Dragon, and merpeople,” he said, elbowing Luna. “We’re with a group headed up by Professor Charlie Weasley, and it’s our turn to make dinner tonight. You could come by and eat with us, if you like! The whole group has been having friends visit all the time. ”

Olivia took a quick glance at her phone. 

“Looks like I’m free! Send me the address. I still have my same number.”

June 15

When Romilda opened the door at Olivia’s knock that evening, the windows were open all over the house, a sea breeze rustling the white curtains. An enchanted broom was sweeping up the sand that was constantly tracked in, and Terry Boot was trying to grab a capering sea dragon that had hopped out of its enclosure. The Norwegian forest cat, Albert, who lived in the barn was chasing them both 

Luna had made quiches with local goat cheese and tomatoes, spinach, basil and dandelion greens that Ginny had brought in from the garden. Luna had pressed the cornmeal crusts with wildflower petals Rolf had gathered in his morning bike ride. Luna had patented a magically-enhanced ice cream machine her sophomore year of college and it was now merrily whirring up strawberry and mint sorbet. Rolf had made big icey pitchers of green tea with rosemary syrup and wheels of lemon. 

When the group all sat down at the long rickety table in the narrow dining room, Ginny was at one end with Terry, Margaret, Romilda and Charlie, while Olivia was charming the other end where a mix of students and visiting friends were gazing at her as she told what must have been very amusing anecdotes. 

Ginny had gotten on the topic of the Weasley brothers and their partners and was giving Charlie lots of updates, whether he wanted to hear them or not.

“So have you met Percy’s new girlfriend? Audrey-something?”

“No,” Charlie said, shoveling salad into his mouth.

“I’ve only seen her once. Percy brought her to one of my semi-final games last year, but they didn’t come to the afterparty. Something about an early morning yoga class.”

“Huh,” he said, clearly not listening as he reached for the pie dish.

Ginny tapped her fork on the table, glaring at her brother. “At least Angelina is serious about Quidditch, I guess, so I’m not totally alone in the family.”

“Oh, come off it, Ginny! I could have played for England.”

“A likely story...”

At the other end of the table:

“And that’s when Rolf realized that Professor Adams was not out sick that day, but actually watching from the hallway as we put frogs in his teapot,” Olivia said, as Rolf laughed so hard he was actually starting to cry and he collapsed on the table. Luna was laughing beside him.

Persephone, who had been trying to regale the table with some gory story from her Healer days, opened her mouth yet again to try to get a word in edgewise, but the groups’ eyes seemed to stay glued on Olivia. 

“--And Rolf, Rolf, don’t you remember at the All-New England Youth Regatta when we put the speed charms on our boat and we just went zooming past all of the Muggle teams? You all wouldn’t have believed it. Two twelve year olds just flying over the water and all the Muggle kids just staring at us. I almost capsized our boat!”

“And-- and-- my dad--” Rolf could barely breathe with laughter.

“Your dad said he should turn us into raccoons because we were already such rascals! And he almost did! But then we dove into the water at the last moment and he turned that little Muggle baby into a raccoon!” 

“Haha, so funny,” Romilda muttered, completely unnoticed by Olivia, stabbing her quiche. 

“What’s your deal?” asked Terry. The rest of the group was now listening, rapt, to another of Olivia’s tales, this one involving herself sneaking into the boy’s dormitories to invite them to play a cursed game of spin-the-bottle.

“Oh, nothing,” Romilda said. “I just wanted to hear what happened to that guy’s butt that Persephone was going to say. I’ve never heard of someone getting poison oak up their butt.”

Olivia ruffled Rolf’s hair as he still leaned on the table, hardly able to breathe with laughter. 

*

June 15

“You and Olivia seem like you were really close in school,” Luna said as they lay in bed that night, moths flickering to their bedside light. 

Rolf, who had been dozing off over the latest copy of the Magizoology journal his dad edited, opened his eyes.

“Yeah,” he sighed.

A minute or two of quiet.

“Were you ever together?”

Rolf shifted around, “Junior year of high school.”

“For how long?”

“Five months, right before she got together with Jade.”

“We’ve been together for so long, but you’ve never mentioned her.”

He flicked through the pages of the journal for a few moments. 

“Well, at the start of freshman year, it had been less than a year since our break up. I guess I didn’t want to talk about her anymore. My plan was to move to England and move on with my life.”

“Did it work?”

“Of course,” he said, lightly, as he kissed her.

-----

June 16, Friday 

The next morning, when Luna got up, Rolf was already dressed and halfway out the door. 

“Charlie said we’re headed up toward the county park,” he said when she saw her awake. “Think you’ll come?”

“Probably,” said Luna. “Maybe I’ll paint at one of the picnic tables for a bit. Or see if I get any good new pictures of the dragons on my phone. I need another reference shot of their wings.”

Downstairs, Charlie was cooking pancakes for the assembled students who were spread around the little breakfast nook, the dining table, the living room. 

“Charlie, did the veggie bacon touch the real bacon?” Maude called from the living room where she was sitting beside Margaret, who was stealing Maude’s pancakes off her plate. 

“Uh, I hope not?” Charlie called back.

“These pancakes are kind of weird..” Margaret’s voice trailed into the room.

In the breakfast nook, Persephone was reading the newspaper, with a pair of reading glasses perched on her nose. Terry was trying to help solve the crossword over Sam’s shoulder and accidentally sloshed some coffee on him. Romilda was explaining to Charlie that the pancake batter was too thick. 

“Charlie, are we making pancakes or paving a sidewalk?”

“They normally turn out differently than this...”

Ginny had gone out to the garden under the pretense of some watering the plants, but seemed to be gazing off toward the water and drinking her coffee.

Luna grabbed a few sections of the newspaper from the kitchen and found some a spot by Rolf at the dining table, where they read and ate their pancakes, which were admittedly a little underdone in the middle, in companionable silence.   

“Alright, gang,” Charlie called from the kitchen. “There’s sandwich stuff in the fridge. If you want a ride in the van, I’m going to be driving it with the equipment to the beach in about fifteen minutes. If not, you can find your own way there, but remember, a lot of us are here on visas and Washington state has strict Apparition laws around Muggles. Do we want to be deported?” he asked the room at large, to general head shaking. 

Looking pleased he continued, “So, remember, what does Charlie always say? When in doubt, walk it out!”

“Boo, Charlie! Stop saying that!” said Romilda. 

“Well, what do you want me to say,” he said grumpily.

Persephone brushed past Romilda, giving her a somewhat dirty look, “I could ride in the van and help you with the equipment, Charlie.”

“Alright, thanks,” said Charlie.

“Suck-up,” Romilda muttered.

*

At the county park, the group staked out a few picnic tables. Luna stayed at the table with everyone’s backpacks, bikes, and the coolers filled with sparkling water, lemonade and sandwiches. The rest of the group set out looking to find dragons to tag with the tracking devices. Luna got out her travel watercolor sketch pad and her small palette, checking to see if anyone was looking before transfiguring a pinecone into a little shingled cup for water. She was painting the view in front of her, when Romilda plopped down next to her on the bench.

“What’re you doing?” Romilda asked, peering at the painting. “Looks good. I heard about those big painted faces you had up in your room, like, of Neville and Harry or something?”

“Yes, and Ginny, Ronald, and Hermione, '' Luna said. “They all got blown up by an Erumpent horn, but they were nice while they lasted.”  

“So, why did you paint giant faces on your ceiling?” Romilda asked conversationally.

“Because I love my friends,” Luna said. “And I had just learned a new potion recipe to enchant the paint. And I guess I didn’t have a lot to do during summer break that year.”

“In for a penny in for a pound, with you, I suppose,” Romilda said. “None of my friends have ever made a great big mural of me, the ungrateful bastards.”

Not knowing what to say to this, Luna continued painting.

“I supposed I was a bit of a bitch to you at Hoggie’s,” Romilda said. “I like to run my mouth off, especially back then. But you’re a good egg and I should’ve been less of a bitch, so I’m sorry about all that.”

“That’s alright,” Luna said, smiling. 

“So what’ve you been up to since we graduated? I didn’t get quite enough N.E.W.T.s to get into Cambridge with all of the smarty-pantses but I was off at University College London and I had a class or two with the Chosen One himself, ha ha.”

Luna found herself chatting with Romilda practically all day, with Romilda sitting next to her at lunch and afterwards saying, “well, why don’t you come with me and keep me company while I try to collar these little bastards. I don’t want Charlie to think I never do any work at all.”

June 16 

After a long morning finally pulling out the last dandelions that had invaded the herb garden, Ginny went upstairs to her room to lie down. On her bed, Ginny unlocked her phone, and answered a few texts from Hermione and her mum. She hesitated for a moment, then touched a dating app icon.

Immediately a parade of faces was on her phone. She swiped left, left, left, right. 

Wait, was this the girl who had come over to dinner the other night? Ginny looked at her bio:

organic earth mama, strawberry queen, 23. looking to connect with other positive souls.

Ginny frowned slightly, considering. Was she a positive soul? 

She flicked through the pictures Olivia had posted and then on the link to her Instagram. Scrolling down through the months, Ginny saw that Olivia was originally from San Diego and visited there frequently. Her friends looked like her. They were tall, willowy, wearing mid-riff tops, tiny shorts and big white-toothed smiles, iced coffee in one hand. But Olivia and her pals weren’t just beach girls, oh no, here were pictures of Olivia doing yoga in the Hoh Rainforest, and here she was in a baggy REI shirt and shorts strapped into a big backpacking backpack. 

The most recent pictures were Olivia squatting effortlessly amid her strawberry patches, eyes closed, perfect smile catching the light of the summer sun. Ginny found herself staring at a picture of Olivia, seemingly caught mid-laugh, on a beach, with sand dusted over her golden skin, an ice cream cone melting down her long, ring-covered fingers. 

Ginny swiped right, and immediately got a match notification. 

Chapter Text

June 18 

“I’ve got a little sailboat at the Friday Harbor marina. Want to go sailing today?” Olivia asked when Ginny met her in front of the house on Sunday. They had texted back and forth over the last day or two and they had agreed to hang out that afternoon.

“I mean, I’ve never been before, so I wouldn’t be able to do anything helpful,” said Ginny.

“That’s no problem,” Olivia said, “I’ve got the sailing trophies to prove it.”

As they bicycled to town, Olivia called over, “Remind me of the name of your aunt?”

“Florence!”

“Ah yes, Flo,” Olivia said with a reminiscent smile. “I’ve actually been to your house more than once. All the old ladies on the island love me.”

Ginny didn’t doubt it. Olivia was one of those lucky people whose face was so beautiful that they start on everyone’s good side and unless they do something truly heinous, they’ll probably stay there.

“I can’t believe you got away with calling her Flo,” Ginny called back over the breeze, “Mum always made us address her very respectfully as Great Aunt Florence.”

Olivia smiled mischievously. “What can I say? These old ladies love me!”

When they got to Olivia’s boat, she fastened Ginny’s life jacket for her and pulled up on the shoulders to make sure it fit. Olivia was a great sailor, at least as far as Ginny could tell. Ginny stayed out of the way and enjoyed the chilly breeze and all the sights. They saw a pod of orca whales in the distance as they circled the island and then as they turned around another corner of the island, they saw Charlie and his students on the shore with the sea dragons.

“So your brother is focusing on the Salish Sea Dragons?” Olivia asked.

“That’s right. He’s a professor at the College of Magical Creatures at Cambridge. I think they’re trying to find out the summer range of the dragon. They’re a very under-researched species apparently. And did you know there’s some illegal trade of them as pets and for their poison?”

“Huh. I hadn’t heard that,” said Olivia.

“How long have you been, uh, a sailor? Sailing?” asked Ginny, eager to keep the conversation going.

“Oh, ever since I was a little girl,” said Olivia. “I love to take people with me, but I make sure to go sailing alone at least once a week.” Her eyes fixed upon the gauzy horizon. “I feel so small out here, all my problems fade to nothing and I only think about catching the next breeze and staying alive, I suppose.” She smiled at Ginny, “as e.e. cummings said, “‘whatever we lose, like a you or a me, it's always ourselves we find in the sea.’”

Ginny wished she had something profound to say in return, or a little poetry, but she did not. 

When they got back to the marina, Olivia gave her a hand out. “Well done, you brave Gryffindor,” she said, kissing Ginny on the cheek.

“How did you know I’m a Gryffindor?” Ginny asked, turning a little red.

“I’ve read interviews,” Olivia said. “Even Americans know a bit about famous war heroes turned Quidditch stars. Speaking of which, you and Harry Potter? Where’s he this summer? I’m assuming you’re not together anymore? Unless you’ve got an open relationship?”

Ginny deflated a little. “We’ve had some big issues recently.”

“Anything you want to talk about?” Olivia asked. “I’ve got a bottle of wine in the fridge at home with our name on it.”

They rode to Olivia’s farm, Ginny a little subdued now that her mind was on Harry. She hadn’t heard from him since she’d gotten here. Harry hadn’t really adapted to smart phones, but she was sure he could find a way to communicate if he wanted to, not that she was trying that hard either. 

Olivia’s house was small and red with enormous windows, on top of a bluff overlooking the sound. The women laid their bicycles down near the door, and Olivia took Ginny on a tour. First they walked together around the building. Just past the back porch, there were hundreds of stairs cut into the rock leading down to the beach, with a little driftwood railing. On the other side of the house were the strawberry fields, which smelled fresh and sweet in the late afternoon sun.

There was a sign on the door that said “Olivia’s Strawberry Cove.” Inside, the kitchen was small and sunlit, with an expensive Dutch oven sitting on her La Cornue range. All the fixtures were new and the hardwood floor gleamed. Olivia’s living room was large and airy, yet cozy with understated furniture, a big stone fireplace and a lambskin lying on the floor over the flagstones. The wrap-around porch had a swing and a view of the late afternoon sun on the water. 

Olivia led Ginny into a room with two big skylights letting in the beginning of the long summer twilight. There were bundles of herbs drying from the rafters and shelves neatly holding rows of jarred ingredients, burlap sacks, brightly illustrated tins. There were several cauldrons, all made of copper. Glass vials and test tubes winked in the dying light. 

“It’s my potions room,” Olivia said. “I love making potions.”

“Oh Godric,” Ginny said with a nervous laugh. “That’s something we do not have in common. Our potions professor made the whole subject miserable. Professor Snape.”

“Isn’t he the guy Harry is saying was a big war hero?”

“Yeah,” Ginny said. “He turned out to be on the good side, but it was because of some obsession he had with Harry’s mum and Snape had been a Death Eater until Voldemort killed her. Then, I guess he felt bad, so he was a spy for Dumbledore.” Ginny was talking a bit fast. Olivia had stepped closer to Ginny to listen.

“Weird,” said Olivia. 

Ginny was finding it hard to concentrate. Olivia kept very constant eye contact. “I mean it was brave of him and everything to be a double agent. But he did ruin the whole subject of potions for countless Hogwarts students. He was a greasy old bat who only gave good marks to Slytherins. May he rest in peace,” she added. 

”Is it an awkward time to tell you that I was a bit of a potions prodigy at Ilvermorny?”

“Really?”

“Yes, I won Most Promising Young American Potioneer my senior year.”

“Wow,” said Ginny, admiringly. She looked around. “This whole place is amazing. I’ve been living with Harry the last few years at the place he inherited from his godfather, but we wouldn’t have anything nearly this nice if it weren’t for Harry’s dad’s and Sirius’ pureblood hoards of galleons.”

“And while I think that sounds nice, everything here I worked for,” Olivia said with a satisfied smile. “I’ve been hustling constantly ever since I got out of Ilvermorny. And even back in my school days I was working on setting up the future. I haven’t woken up past five in the last ten years.” 

 “Wow,” Ginny said, “I get up in time for Quidditch practice, but that’s it.”

Olivia laughed and led her by the hand into the kitchen. There was a smaller door in the kitchen that Ginny opened to see Olivia’s walk-in pantry. It was a mix of serious looking protein powders, backpacking meals, and packets of electrolyte gels beside home-canned, hand-labeled jars of vegetables, soups, sauces, jams. 

“I love canning,” said Olivia. “I might expand my strawberry jam and juice business sometime. Right now I sell it at farmer’s markets and online, but I’m thinking about opening a brick and mortar.”

There were aprons hung up in the back of the pantry, on a little brass hook, almost concealing another door. 

“What does that door go to?” asked Ginny, moving to open it, and finding it locked.

“Oh, that,” said Olivia. “It’s the storeroom for my jams. I keep it really dark and cool inside and I only really go in there on canning days or when I’m getting ready for a market.”

For dinner they ate on the back porch, enjoying cold roast chicken from Olivia’s fridge and the promised bottle of orange wine.

The evening turned to night. With wine, sympathy, and a hand-crocheted afghan around her shoulders, Ginny found herself telling her story.

“I decided I was in love with Harry when I was ten years old. Most people don’t know this, but he saved my life my first year at Hogwarts, so he was literally my hero. For over half my life, he’s been who I dream about. But now I’m not sure. When he was always saving England it felt like it would be ridiculous not to be in love with him, and if I wasn’t supporting him I was somehow letting the whole Wizarding community down. I spent so many years when I was little plotting how to get him, when I finally did, I wasn’t sure what to do with him,” she laughed, wiping her eyes with the tissue Olivia passed her. 

Olivia moved closer on the swinging bench and put her arms around Ginny. “Maybe it’s time to let go.”

Ginny leaned into her and Olivia covered them with another cashmere blanket that she retrieved with a flick of her wand from a little wooden cupboard on the porch.  

They sat together quietly, Ginny leaning into Olivia’s embrace. Ginny had forgotten how it felt to be next to another woman like this. How could it be so comforting and so thrilling and nerve-wracking at the same time?

Olivia leaned back a little. “You look so cute all snuggled up here. Let me take your picture.”

“I’m all blotchy,” Ginny said, wiping her eyes, with a shaky hand.

“How about this,” Olivia got out her phone and snapped a picture of their wine glasses on the low wooden table, the glowing fairy lights and the moon over the sea. She posted it on Instagram with the caption “late nights, new friends.” 

“Have you got an Instagram, Ginny?” she asked. “I’ll tag you.”

When she was done with that, Olivia summoned another bottle of wine.

*

Monday, June 19

Ginny woke up in Olivia’s bed that morning. 

Ginny had been so weepy and drunk that Olivia had insisted on her staying the night, lending her organic cotton pajamas with bright patterns that Ginny recognized from an Instagram ad. Olivia had tucked her in and brought her a glass of water and a little bottle of potion in a dark brown apothecary jar. Ginny had fallen asleep the moment her head hit the pillow, before Olivia was even ready for bed.

In the morning light, Olivia was gone, but there was a note next to the potion that read, “Good morning sunshine, this is my homemade hangover potion! All organic. I perfected it my freshman year at Columbia, so you know it works ;-)”

Ginny uncapped it and took a swig. It tasted sweet and fruity. Maybe it lessened a headache, but Ginny had only been awake for a few seconds before she drank it, so it was hard to tell. Either way she didn’t feel hungover. She reached for her phone to look at the time, and ended up opening Instagram and accepting Olivia’s follow request. 

After Ginny had messed around on her phone a bit, (Hermione had sent a post from the niche Hogwarts meme page) she slowly got out of bed and saw another note taped with strawberry washi tape to the closet, “you’re welcome to borrow any clothes you need <3”

Ginny looked in Olivia’s closet for a moment before putting on her same clothes from the day before.

*

At home, Ginny got some cold brew and homemade creamer from the fridge and went to sit in the garden, surrounded by flowers. There were the most fairies in the garden at night -- most of them gathered at dusk and left at dawn -- but there were still a few fluttering around, some watering the plants, others resting amongst the leaves. 

Comfortably situated, she got her phone out of her pocket and called Hermione.

“Hi--”

“Ginny! I’m so glad to hear from you! How is it going over there? Are you all settled in? Need me to send you anything?”

Ginny laughed. “I’m fine, doing well, just wanted to chat. How’s your day been?”

“Oh good, good. I just got out of my first bar review class and it’s good but I was rather hoping they would have more time allotted for discussion of Magical Wills and Trusts, but I didn’t see that anywhere on the syllabus. So that’s not awfully promising and I might have to start my own study group for that section, but other than that my day’s going well! Even better now that you’ve called! Tell me about what’s been going on?”

“Well, I’m all settled in and my Aunt Florence’s house is really nice. It’s pretty hot upstairs, but it’s got a really nice view and it’s so big and airy. You should come visit sometime this summer and see it. The whole island is so beautiful, there’s all these bright orange poppies everywhere and little deer and foxes.”

“I would love to come if I ever feel ready for this cursed exam. But how lovely! Send me some pictures. And how is Charlie?”

“Good, good, all wrapped up in his work as usual. They’ve collared thirty Salish Sea Dragons so far which is right on track with what Charlie expected. But the thing I wanted to talk to you about -- hang on,” she pulled out her wand and cast a quick spell.

“Ooh, a Muffliato is it? You must have something juicy.”

“I went on a date with this girl I met on a dating app and she went to Ilvermorny so she knows Rolf--”

“Rolf Scamander?”

“Yeah, did I tell you he and Luna are here?”

“No! Luna told me she was spending the summer in the US, but she didn’t even mention that it would be Charlie’s research program! She’s always leaving out relevant information,” Hermione huffed. “Well, how do you feel about seeing them? What do you think of Rolf?”

“Seeing them was nice, and Rolf seems fine-- Wait, what do you mean? How would I feel about it?”

“I don’t know, I mean I used to see Luna quite a lot because she and Rolf were always having dinner parties. Like every week. I couldn’t make it that often with going to see your brother in California. But when we all lived in the dorms I saw them every day. But it seems like you and Luna really drifted apart after Hogwarts..”

“Well, we don’t see each other all the time, but I mean, she’s still my friend. Just because I didn’t go to Cambridge with all of you--- I’ve been busy with Quidditch! You all were off getting your degrees. I didn’t get to spend as much time with you all anymore--”

“Okay, forget I said anything,” said Hermione. “What were you going to tell me? You went on a date?”

Ginny tried to pull herself together.

“Yes, I went out with this girl named Olivia and she was really cool.”

“Details!”

“Well, she went to Ilvermorny and she knows how to sail in a sailboat and she’s got this really cute little house she lives in. And she owns and runs a strawberry farm!”

“And she’s my age? The same year as Rolf? Is it a family farm?”

“Yes, she’s your age, but the farm she bought herself! And the house is beautiful! Isn’t that crazy? She’s accomplished so much. She’s also got about a million followers on Instagram and Tiktok, because she’s also really really pretty, and she posts such interesting, beautiful pictures and videos. She’s kind of intimidating, but there’s something about how intimidating she is that’s kind of--”

“Kind of hot?” asked Hermione. “And a looker, huh? Hmm, let me find this Instagram”

“Yes, exactly,” said Ginny, switching her phone to her other ear. “She’s so cool. I can’t even explain it. She was reciting poetry to me on her sailboat. Did I already say she makes her own potions? And homemade jam that she sells at farmer’s markets? And she was so sweet when I was whining about Harry. I feel sort of embarrassed now, to be honest.”

“Oh whatever, if she’s not going to be able to deal with that she’s not right for you anyway.”

“Are you calling me a crybaby?” said Ginny in mock indignation.

“I’m not NOT calling you a crybaby...”

----

Monday June 19

Ginny had tried to go to bed on time, but thoughts of Olivia kept her tossing and turning. Should she text Olivia tomorrow? Should she have texted her today to thank her for the potion and the offer of clothes? Was it awkward that she hadn’t? Did Olivia like her or did she just feel obligated to put up with her last night because she was so upset about Harry? 

Maybe they would end up together and Olivia would come to England and see the Burrow! Would she like it? Would her mum make Olivia sleep in Percy’s room or something? She never let Harry sleep in Ginny’s room, but surely her mum wouldn’t keep that up forever. If Olivia visited, they could go into the town and get ice cream and Ginny could show Olivia all her favorite places... Ugh, but she still had her failing relationship with Harry to deal with before she could make these big plans with someone else... did she and Harry really have to meet up and talk this out or could their break just go on indefinitely... a mutual ghosting... Olivia might not like her anyway... Ginny glanced at her phone’s clock. It was 1:55 AM. 

She cast her mind around for another topic, hopefully something relaxing that would lull her to sleep, but landed on Luna. Why hadn’t Ginny made more of an effort to keep up with Luna? Luna had been throwing weekly dinner parties for years? Who else was going to these things, and why wasn’t Ginny ever invited? Why hadn’t she even heard about this long-term relationship Luna was in? What was the deal with this Rolf character? Ginny had met lots of people with goofy pureblood names, but she thought this was worse than most names. ‘Rolf.’ It sounded like someone throwing up. And was she crazy or was he not that handsome? Not good enough for Luna, undoubtedly. He was just tall. Tall men get away with an awful lot. No one can see their faces, because they’re up too high, and no one can tell if they're handsome or not! They trick women that way. 

Thinking about Luna was even less restful than Olivia. Ginny was up so late that she was starting to get hungry again, so she went downstairs and reheated some leftover spinach-ricotta lasagna with a wave of her wand. Then she brought it upstairs and decided to read a YA novel she had found earlier that day in a free box on the street. 

She was twenty pages in when she realized why the cover looked so familiar. This was the book Luna had been reading on the Hogwarts Express and that first day in Transfiguration. Those images of Luna felt like they were burned into Ginny’s mind. Luna’s wavy white blonde hair, the frizz making a halo in the afternoon sun shining through the train window. Her feet tucked as close to her body as they could go, shoulders hunched forward against the loud third year boys surrounding her. The next day in class, cornflower blue eyes flicking back and forth across the page, reading so fast, immune to the sounds of the class around her. When Luna was concentrating, it was like nothing else existed.   

Her lasagna finished, Ginny turned off the light and lay down in bed. She was just starting to fall asleep when she realized that she hadn’t brushed her teeth. 

She was wearing a little pair of shorts and an old cropped t-shirt as pajamas. Even with the window open, it was quite hot upstairs. Normally, Ginny would put on a bathrobe or something, given all the people she could run into in the hallway, but by now it was almost three in the morning, so everyone else ought to be asleep. She wandered down the dark hall and into the bathroom. The room was enchanted with a night light charm, so a little dim globe hovered and bounced around in the bathroom, giving Ginny just enough light to see by, without having to turn on the bright overhead light. 

She had squeezed some toothpaste onto her brush when there was a creak and someone else bumped into the bathroom. Ginny jumped in surprise and turned to meet the pale blue eyes she had been thinking about in her room. 

“Oh sorry,” Luna whispered. “I didn’t realize you were in here.”

“No, no, I’m sorry,” Ginny whispered back. “I was in here brushing my teeth in the dark like a real weirdo--”

“I just wanted to brush my teeth too. I had a Tum, and I don’t want sugar on my teeth all night. Let’s have a little toothbrushing party.”

Luna closed the door behind her and they stood together in front of the sink. Luna’s arm bumped Ginny’s as she put toothpaste on her brush and Ginny felt electricity traveling from that spot through her veins. In the dark mirror Ginny could see the outlines of Luna’s body through her thin cropped tank top. Ginny risked a glance down and saw that Luna was only wearing panties, with a high lace waist and little flowers everywhere. 

“Hey, what are you looking at?” asked Luna through a mouthful of toothpaste.

“You’ve always had the cutest little knickers,” said Ginny.

Luna laughed, trying to cover her mouth and spraying toothpaste everywhere, which set Ginny into a fit of giggles as well. Luna set her toothbrush down on the counter, started trying to wipe the toothpaste off the mirror, laying her other hand over Ginny’s arm, “See what you made me do! You’re so ridiculous.”

Without thinking, Ginny set her own toothbrush down as well and stepped closer, leaning her head against Luna’s shoulder. Luna hesitated and then wrapped her arms around Ginny’s waist, her mouth close to Ginny’s ear, her breath warm and tickling Ginny’s ear. They stayed like that for a few seconds or perhaps a few minutes. Ginny’s body was tingling all over, she was fighting the urge to slide her hands down and hold Luna when a quiet tap at the door sent her stumbling backwards and nearly falling over into the clawfoot tub.  

“Luna, are you feeling alright?” asked Rolf.  

Chapter Text

Tuesday, June 20

The next day Ginny asked Olivia to go on an afternoon walk.

Ginny had gotten into birdwatching recently with the help of a quick charm that could be easily taken and removed from the eyes. Angelina Johnson and George were big birdwatchers recently and they had taught Ginny this spell when they went on a big family vacation to Australia last summer. It had really impressed the Australian Muggles when they overheard them identify birds hundreds of feet away. 

Ginny and Olivia walked all over, Ginny identifying birds with the help of a phone app. When Olivia looked at Ginny, it was like they were the only two people in the world. Olivia took a video of Ginny pointing out a downy woodpecker, showed her, and posted it on Tiktok with a little song playing underneath the audio. By dinnertime, they walked so far they were all the way in Friday Harbor. Olivia took Ginny to a restaurant right on the water. 

“I mean it’s a little greasy, kind of a tourist trap,” Olivia said as they wandered the sunny bay with the restaurant pager. “But it’s got such an incredible view! And the house salad is actually amazing. They use my strawberries and other local produce, so it’s a lot better than you might think.”

Time Ginny spent with Olivia had a way of flying by. Olivia had so many stories and she told them so well, and beyond that Ginny found herself talking. More than she had in years. 

At the restaurant, sitting on the balcony over the busy harbor, Ginny said, “I can’t believe I only met you a few days ago.”

“I know,” Olivia said, solemnly. “I’m so honored, to be honest! I feel like getting to know you might be sort of a rare thing? You seem really private.”

“Yeah,” Ginny said, folding and unfolding her napkin. “Ever since the war ended, Harry and I have been constantly in the spotlight. And Ron and Hermione. And of course my teammates are public figures too, in their own way. It’s hard to let new people in, because everyone’s got so many preconceived notions about me.”

Olivia reached across the table and laid her smooth tan hand briefly over Ginny’s. “That must be tricky. Do you ever feel trapped, if it feels like the only people you can trust are the people you already know?”

“Yes,” Ginny said. “I do. That’s how I was feeling with Harry, in a way. Like I didn’t know if I wanted to be with him or if he felt like the only person I was allowed to be with, and one of the only people I could count on. But we’d go for weeks where we wouldn’t have a single conversation that went below the surface. ‘What should we eat for dinner?’, ‘is Hermione coming back for the weekend?’ We had no idea about what was going on internally with each other.”

“That can be so difficult. To be together, but feel like there’s a barrier between you and your partner.”

“Exactly, like a big glass wall that’s blocking us from really hearing each other, but neither of us can see it. That’s why I want to proceed with caution now. I want to make sure that I’m not getting wrapped up in the idea of a relationship so much that it stands in the way of actually seeing one another. Does that even make sense?” Ginny buried her head in her hands.

“That totally makes sense,” Olivia said, placing a reassuring hand on Ginny’s arm. “Have you heard from Harry since you came here?”

“No.”

“When do you have to go back to start the Quidditch season again?”

“Not until September.”

“How did you decide to join the Holyhead Harpies? Do you have any control over which team you end up on or do you just get drafted?”

___

The past

The Holyhead Harpies came knocking on Ginny’s door during her seventh year, literally. She was in the locker room discussing the match (they had beat Hufflepuff 190-30) when she heard a soft knock behind her. Harry went to answer the door and Gwenog Jones herself walked in. Ginny, who had grown up with a Gwenog Jones poster on her wall, was starstruck. Harry and the other members of the team carried on most of the conversation with Gwenog while Ginny recovered her nerve. Harry took every opportunity to talk about Ginny’s talents on the pitch.

Ginny was invited to a few Holyhead Harpies practices over the school year, which was so intimidating but amazing. Though it was hard to admit this even to herself because it was so immodest, Ginny had become a little used to being the best player at school and not feeling very challenged. She still spent countless hours training, but that was partially to keep her mind from spiraling. When she was exercising and flying, the thoughts got blown right out of her head. But flying with the Harpies was a different game entirely. Ginny wasn’t mindlessly following her muscle memory, she had to be focused all the time, she had to push herself to the absolute limit just to keep up. She loved it.

Gwenog and other teammates came to the Hogwarts championship match with a banner for Ginny, and the next fall Ginny was the Harpies’ number one draft pick. 

After her first practice the next autumn on a misty pitch in Wales, after the team hit the showers, they took the locker room Floo to their favorite club for a start-of-the-year party, which was in Diagon Alley. Ginny, feeling shy as Harry, Ron and Hermione hadn’t arrived yet, was nursing her beer on a velveteen cushion in the booth the team had reserved, watching as the players’ partners and friends filtered in. She was introduced to Gwenog Jones’ wife, Efa, a petite beautiful witch, who was also a model, from Gwenog’s hometown. Efa showed Ginny pictures of her and Gwenog’s home remodel and of their two small dogs. Ginny was introduced to Wilda Griffiths’ girlfriend, Jenny, who played for the Tutshill Tornados and Valmai Morgan’s wife, Emma, a tall dark-haired woman with a PhD in public health, who was wearing stretchy maternity jeans and had an absentminded hand resting on her baby bump. She also got to meet some boyfriends and husbands, but their lives didn’t seem as interesting.

When Ginny’s friends arrived, she felt very young. Her teammates were excited and clamoring to meet Harry and Ron and Hermione, who were the most famous Magical folks in Britain, but Ginny kept thinking about their passive-aggressive chore chart at Grimmauld Place that no one followed, and how Ron was taking a gap year to “explore the world of Muggle video games,” and how none of them really knew how to cook and just ate whatever Kreacher made, and even when they wanted something in particular and asked Kreacher to make it, he would roll his eyes and continue with the meal plans he carefully wrote up at the start of the week. Kreacher had written in his job contract that he was “creative director” of the kitchen and only incorporated requests made two weeks in advance. Then he’d get annoyed with them and just stay at Shell Cottage for a week or two and they’d have to make do with carry-out and chip shop fare until he returned.

Hermione and Ron were soon making out in a corner booth (which fit the energy of the club, and wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable of a social setting for them to snog in as they often chose). Efa was wrapped around Gwenog. Valmai and Emma were chatting in a rowdy group in the booth, though not too rowdy themselves as Valmai wasn’t drinking in solidarity with her pregnant wife. Harry was chatting with some of Ginny’s new teammates at the bar. Ginny looked over at him in the dim red light of the bar, watched how it played across his dark hair, his shoulders. She felt inexplicably lonely then. 

Efa looked kind of like Luna, Ginny thought. If Luna were a lot shorter, had red hair ... a completely different face. She looked nothing like Luna. 

Wednesday, June 21

The next afternoon, Ginny texted Olivia again, to see if she wanted coffee or to go on a walk. It was hard to get Olivia off of her mind. When they parted the night before, apparating out of a dark alleyway back to their homes, Olivia gave her a small kiss on the cheek. In bed that night, Ginny had closed her eyes and imagined it over and over. 

She almost immediately got a text back: “omg i wish i could! I’m up to my ears canning jam over here :( are you free tomorrow for dinner?“ 

Ginny responded, “yes! Do you want to come over? Rolf and luna are making enchiladas :)”

Thursday, June 22

Luna or Rolf volunteered to help with dinner most nights. Luna had explained to Ginny during one of their gardening sessions that she and Rolf had made dinner together most nights for the last four years and it was one of their favorite things to do. 

They were having black bean enchiladas that night, with kale from the garden. Margaret had made guacamole and pico de gallo which they served with corn chips from a local Mexican restaurant. Charlie had picked up Modelo on his supply run to town, and this evening they were all sitting in lawn chairs in the big shady yard. 

Albert the cat was rubbing along their legs. A few fairies, attracted by all of the magical energy coming from the big house, were glowing in the twilight. Albert lay down, his long tail twitching, but didn’t seem to have the confidence to pounce on one. 

Ginny sat on a blanket with Olivia and Rolf who were bringing each other up to speed with news and gossip about different classmates. Luna had been floating about the yard with Sam and Terry, leaving out dishes of lavender and rosemary syrup for the fairies and making sure everyone had enough crema and cilantro for their enchiladas. She eventually drifted over to their blanket, and settled down behind Rolf, setting an idle chin on his shoulder. Rolf briefly set his hand on her arm at her touch, before turning back to talking with Olivia.

Later, Ginny, Rolf, and some others started gathering plates and bringing them to the big kitchen sink to start washing. The dishes were Great Aunt Florence’s wedding china, hand painted with local flowers, from when she married her first husband in Seattle. Luna had tried to help, but everyone had made her sit down and rest for a bit, since she had done so much cooking.

Olivia also stayed sitting on the picnic blanket. Luna felt a little awkward, being left with Olivia, as they took the last sips of their beer. There were a few others in the yard watching the sunset, messing with their phones, chatting in little groups. The cleaner-uppers were going about the task of gathering up plates, rather loudly, as if they wanted everyone to take notice that they were helping. 

“A word of advice, dear?” Olivia said, after the door banged shut as the noisy crowd of dishwashers barged back inside. She reached across the picnic blanket and took Luna’s hand.

“Mm?” 

“Don’t smother him. Rolf loves his independence and he’s not a big fan of PDA. That’s what drew us together: our fierce self-reliance and sense of adventure. That’s how he was raised.”

Luna made a noncommittal noise, and Olivia gave her hand a little squeeze, rose gracefully from the picnic blanket, shook out her linen jumpsuit and went back into the house.

Romilda, who had heard the whole exchange from a nearby Adirondack chair, gave Luna a look of disbelief.

“Did she really just act like she knows your boyfriend of four years better than you?”

“I guess she has her own experiences with him,” Luna said with a shrug.

“‘Rolf doesn’t like PDA,’” Romilda repeated, with a look of disgust. “Luna, you’re too open-minded for your own good.”

*

June 23, Friday

The next morning Romilda came knocking on Luna’s door around eight. 

“Are you up?” she called through the door. “Want to go into town for coffee with Margaret and Maude?”

“Okay, just let me get dressed,” Luna called back. She had been lying in bed, not really asleep, but also not wanting to get up. Rolf had woken up at six, whispering about needing to go do something with the dragons. 

The four witches all pedaled into town in relative peace and quiet, and when they had locked their bikes up and were walking into the cafe, Romilda and Margaret talked a little about the sea dragons. Once they were all settled on couches in the back corner of the cafe where they could see the water and anyone who came in, Romilda cut to the chase. 

“So Margaret, you and Maude went to Ilvermorny with Rolf and Olivia, right?”

“Yes, that’s right,” she said, glancing at Maude.

“What’s the deal with Olivia?” Romilda asked.

Margaret hesitated, “what do you guys think of her?”

Romilda looked at Luna, “Luna is too nice to say anything, but I don’t know about her. I think she’s not as nice as she seems.”

Margaret looked relieved and Maude amused. 

“Okay, I wasn’t sure if you liked her or not. Since she’s not in our program, I feel less bad saying this. But this is just my perspective and take it all with a grain of salt,” Margaret said, taking a deep breath. 

“I was in class with her and Rolf all my time at Ilvermorny. Olivia ran that school, of course. She’s always been this beautiful. She never had an awkward phase. And she’s directly descended from the founders of Ilvermorny themselves. 

“Her parents have loads of money and they don’t have real jobs. They just head up foundations and sit on the board of nonprofits. Have you seen Olivia’s Instagram? She’s got over a million followers, and most of them are Muggles. She lives on attention and social power.”

Maude further settled into the couch, as though she knew this conversation would take a while.

“Well, doesn’t everyone want power and attention, to some degree?” Luna said.

“Luna, hush, let Margaret tell us the good stuff,” Romilda said, waving a hand.

“She takes it to a whole nother level,” said Margaret, shaking her head. “You’ll see.”

“So what’s going on with her and Rolf?” Romilda asked.

Margaret rolled her eyes. “They were the golden couple of our class for a few months, before Olivia dumped him for Jade. I mean, whoever Olivia was with, they were always the power couple of school. But yeah, Rolf was crazy about her, and then she dumped him over winter break. He came back to school from break a few weeks late because he was so heartbroken that he couldn’t face her. And everyone says that’s why he went to Cambridge. He had been accepted at Columbia and that’s all he talked about for college before he got dumped.”

“He told Luna that he and Olivia started a backpacking club together,” said Romilda.

Margaret rolled her eyes. “Ah yes, the rich kids getting in touch with nature. Rolf, Olivia, Patrick, Angela, even that really weird kid Olivia was friends with -- Daniel Ward? All the well-connected purebloods grew up at private elementary schools, learning to sail and row and all those other WASP-y nautical pursuits. 

“Everyone gave them a lot of credit for doing something as theoretically down-to-earth as backpacking. As if it weren’t just a new way to show how much better than the rest of us they were. How in shape, how adventurous, how environmentally-conscious. And have you ever been shopping for backpacking stuff? That shit is not cheap.”

Luna looked unconvinced.

“I know I must sound crazy--” Margaret said. 

“I don’t think so,” Romilda said.

“--But watching all the rich, pretty kids start and end every trend at our school for seven years was a lot. It’s not like I didn’t have friends. I did. But the only times Olivia ever spoke to me, or really anyone, was if they had something to offer her. I thought we were friends the semester that we were in a journalism class together, but it was only for her to partner with me on a project and have me do all the work.” 

“What were you two like at Hogwarts? Luna, were you queen of the school like Olivia?” Maude asked.

Romilda let out an involuntary snort.

“I’m sorry, Luna,” she said. “You know I think you’re great. But no, queen of the school was not your vibe at Hogwarts.”

“It’s true,” Luna said, unoffended.

“Before she got in with Harry’s crew, she was kind of the weird kid,” Romilda explained. 

“So was Harry really popular when you guys were in school?” Margaret asked. “We all grew up knowing his name, but I guess he must have been an even bigger deal in England. All the girls in our class had a crush on him, but of course we only saw his picture in the newspaper every now and then.”

“All the girls in my class too,” added Maude. “There are so few Magic celebrities. He was like a Wizarding prince the way the tabloids went on about him.”

“It really came and went for Harry,” Luna said, “there were times he was a bigger outcast than me.”

“Yeah, I think I’ve still got one of those Potter Stinks pins at my parents’ house somewhere,” said Romilda, nostalgically.

“Why did you have one in the first place?” asked Luna.

“Scrapbooking purposes,” said Romilda. “I like mementos!” she said when Luna looked skeptical.

Changing the subject, Romilda said, “the most popular girl around our age was definitely Ginny.”

“Oh, easily. Even I noticed that,” Luna said.

“She’s hot,” said Maude, taking a sip of her iced tea. 

“And she’s got that kind of sexy, no-nonsense, sporty-girl thing. She minds her own business. She never seems, like, silly or vapid,” Romilda mused. 

“There’s this podcast called Which Bitch that a lot of my friends listen to, and they talk about Magical celebrity gossip. The hosts and the guests all love Ginny,” said Maude. “There’s something very intriguing about her. Still waters run deep, I guess. They actually have some correspondent who went to Hogwarts with you all who comes on to comment about Ginny sometimes.” 

“Do you remember that paparazzi picture of her and Harry on that trip they took to the south of France?” said Margaret. “Where Harry is like a big sweaty mess and Ginny just looks so unbothered and she’s wearing that really cute pair of shorts.”

“Yeah, the hosts of the podcast actually found where she bought those shorts because everyone wanted them after seeing them on her,” said Maude. “They had an affiliate link. Must have made a lot of money.”

“And you were friends with her at Hogwarts, right?” Margaret asked Luna.

“Yes,” said Luna.

“Luna was the artsy one with her head in the clouds, of their friend group,” Romilda said. “I love how creative you are now that I get to eat all the delicious things you cook. Plus, I still think you might consider painting a big mural of me somewhere.”

“Well, back to Olivia,” Margaret said, looking confused by that comment, but like it would take more than that to stop her from ranting about Olivia. “She needs to be the best at everything. When we were in school she was always singing the solo in our winter concert. In art class, when no one could tell what her painting was meant to be, she would just act like her art was too modern for us to understand”. 

“I remember hearing her say that Fatima Abed, whose paintings looked almost like a photograph--” said Maude

“--she had an art show in town when we were sophomores--” Margaret threw in

“That her paintings were derivative and pedestrian,” Maude finished. “And, like, her shit was amazing! It just came across like Olivia was mad if anyone else got attention.”

“Especially when it was another pretty girl getting the attention,” said Margaret.

“When cottagecore came around, she was acting like she had invented the whole concept of baking bread,” said Margaret. “That stupid bread she’s always posting about. Excuse me for wanting bread to have a carbohydrate or two instead of just being bird seed.”

“I graduated the year before Olivia and Rolf and Margaret,” Maude said. “But she’s an object of fascination even for my class. My friends from my year will send me Olivia’s little strawberry patch Tiktoks because they’re so exhausting if you know her. But also intriguing. Like, she’s making amazing content. I don’t know.”

“I know it sounds like I’m jealous, and I’m not saying I’m not jealous,” Margaret said with a shrug. “It makes me laugh to see her be this relatable, down-to-earth girlie online, with all these strangers falling in love with her and wanting to be her friend when I found her to be so self-interested in real life.”

“At least when we were in high school,” Maude amended. “Maybe she’s changed.”

Chapter Text

Sat and Sun June 24-24

The weekend passed. Olivia came over on Saturday afternoon while Sam and Terry were trying to get everyone to play some board game in the living room. Charlie sat on an old wicker armchair, reading the rulebook with a hopeless expression while Persephone, who was squashed in beside him, tried to explain the rules, talking over Sam who had been addressing the room at large about the role of the various dice.

“Sam’s just about to explain that, Perse,” said Terry. “Persephone, no, that’s not what that card does. At all.”

 Margaret and Maude knew the game and were showing Romilda something on Maude’s phone. When Olivia floated through, Sam invited her to play. Olivia smiled magnanimously as she turned them down, going to the kitchen to join Ginny, Luna, and Rolf who had been eating chickpea salad sandwiches in the dining nook. 

Olivia launched into a remembrance of the time they had all eaten such crazy vegan sandwiches on a class trip to Philadelphia that Jade had gotten food poisoning and thrown up on the Liberty Bell. Which led to more anecdotes.

“Did we still want to go down to the park to collect those samples?” Luna asked Rolf, glancing at her watch, before taking their dishes to the sink.

Rolf who was still laughing about the Obliviation charm their professor had to set on a bewildered zookeeper after someone’s wand had sparked in their pocket and set their pants on fire at the Philadelphia Zoo. “What’d you say?” he said, turning to Luna.

“The samples?”

“Oh, Charlie said not to worry about that and save it for the weekdays.”

“Yeah, I remember when he said that. I was there. But didn’t you say --” But Rolf had already turned back around and Olivia was saying something about a palmistry business a friend had set up. 

Ginny met Luna’s eyes with a what-can-ya-do shrug, and wiggled past Olivia out of the dining nook. “I can go collect that with you and we can leave these old school chums to their glory days.”

Tuesday June 27

As Ginny didn’t have much to do besides keep up the garden, do her allotted chores, and run Quidditch drills with Charlie, she was usually free to hang out with Olivia. Ginny started riding her bike over to Olivia’s house at lunch time to eat with her. Olivia always ate grilled chicken or salmon with lemon and salads with nuts and a small slice of homemade dark brown bread. The bread was full of millet and flax seeds and slivered almonds. Ginny was amazed that bread this healthy could taste so good.

The second day they had lunch, Olivia explained her daily routine. “I love eating lunch with you, and it’s great as long as you turn up after 12:30 because I have a really tight schedule.”

Olivia explained her schedule as follows: she awoke every day at 5. She started the day with an hour of yoga, then ate breakfast: an egg white omelet or her homemade granola with fruit (Ginny tried the granola one day and found it to be disappointingly sugar-free). Then she got her bread dough started and left it to rise while she did her morning tasks in the strawberry field. At eleven thirty she baked the bread, then prepared lunch. Now that she was waiting for Ginny, if she had a spare moment before Ginny arrived, she read (“Reading is honestly my favorite thing. I thought about getting a degree in literature or creative writing, because my professors insisted that I needed to. This one professor, who was so sweet, told me she had never seen another student with my talent. Probably why my Instagram captions go so hard. But, I was just too busy with potions and agriculture. I’m sorry if I’m sounding full of myself. I just feel so open with you!”)

Ginny left by 1:15 so Olivia could finish up her work on the strawberry farm, and unless something came up, Olivia was usually done by 4, and if she didn’t have evening plans, she spent the last few hours before dinner working on perfecting organic potions she was planning to sell at the Magical open-air market in Seattle. She had the hangover cure that Ginny had tried and was also working on a skin care line. She had a few agricultural potions she mixed into the fertilizer as well. On Wednesday and Thursday she spent the whole afternoon making jam and juice to sell at the Muggle and Magical farmer’s markets. 

Now that she and Ginny were seeing each other, Olivia was stopping work a little earlier to go on long bike rides and swims in the small marshy lakes in the center of the island. “I deserve a bit of a summer break, too!” she said. 

After work, Oliva would pedal over to the house. She and Ginny and various other students who were around would go on an afternoon ramble or head down to Friday Harbor for iced tea, coffee or ice cream. 

Rolf usually tagged along, and he and Olivia seemed to have fallen right back into their old friendship. Ginny almost felt like the third wheel when it was Rolf, Olivia, and her, because the other two were constantly referencing something or another about Ilvermorny and their shared past at various coastal American locations. But whenever Ginny was just starting to feel like their anecdotes had stopped being relatable and were relying too heavily on characters and places she didn’t know, Olivia would somehow smoothly transition the conversation back to something Ginny could weigh in on. 

Terry, Sam, and sometimes Persephone or Maude would come along on group adventures. Persephone often tried, but could only very rarely convince Charlie to join in, as Charlie mostly waved them off claiming he was too busy, and too old, and besides that the dragon trackers were acting up. Romilda and Margaret would only come if everyone was going. 

Luna rarely seemed to be around when Olivia wanted to hang out as a group. The evenings Luna was around and available happened to be the times when Olivia would proclaim that she wanted to spend time with her favorite redhead. The other students would groan and roll their eyes, but with an indulgent smile. Olivia and Ginny were such a cute and dynamic pair, they all agreed. Ginny had been worried about the group finding out about her and Olivia, considering that she and Harry were not publicly broken up, but no one seemed to care. Ginny wasn’t sure if everyone was just assuming they were ‘just friends’ or if Olivia’s charm made it seem like they could do no wrong.

Sometimes Olivia took the group for a spin in her boat. Afterward they would all go to Olivia’s airy living room with its expensive air conditioning charm that kept it lovely and cool on the hottest days, and Olivia would pour them expensive wines in simple, but very beautiful earthenware cups (“I made these last summer when I was going through a pottery phase.”) 

Olivia had a highlighted Instagram story with all their summer adventures and sometimes when Ginny was lying in bed at night she would watch Olivia’s Tiktoks, capturing their afternoons and making them seem even better, even more magical with snatches of pop songs soundtracking their life. 

As Olivia had explained earlier, she was busy every week or so going on solo sails. Sometimes these just took an afternoon, but other times she would be gone two days or three. 

“Should I feel nervous that it’s just you and the water?” asked Ginny when Olivia announced her first solo sailing trip since they met, about two weeks after their first date. The two were sitting on the porch of Aunt Florence’s house. “The ocean is scary. It’s full of whales and sharks and big waves.”

“Oh, don’t be silly. But if you feel worried--” she leaned in and kissed Ginny, for the first time. “I’d hate to drown without doing that first.” 

*

Sat July 1

On a sunny afternoon the next weekend, the pair was on a long walk with Rolf down to a state park a few miles down the road. 

“You and Luna are so cute together. I just hope she doesn’t feel threatened by our friendship and history,” Olivia said to Rolf.

“Why would she feel threatened?” asked Ginny.

“Well, beyond dating, I grew up with Rolf,” Olivia said, with a hand around both of their waists as they walked. “And you should have seen the way Rolf’s dad and grandad doted on me. They thought I was the cutest little thing. And his mom clearly wanted a daughter, so she would invite me with her to the spa and movie nights. My family spent every summer with Rolf’s at Martha’s Vineyard or the Hamptons.”

“And we went away to summer camp together a few times,” Rolf said. “Tennis lessons, swimming lessons. It wasn’t just us though, there were different kids from Ilvermorny who would usually be with us at summer camp and up at our summer houses. Like Patrick’s family had their summer house just about a quarter mile from mine, so I saw him every day pretty much. And Angela’s grandparents had a place nearby and sometimes Daniel’s family would come too.”

“Your grandad was convinced we’d end up together,” said Olivia with a smile. “My mom said he was so happy when he found out we were going out.”

“Oh really? I hadn’t heard about that,” Rolf laughed.

“Yes! He and your dad both thought we should get married, according to my mom,” said Olivia.

They walked along quietly for a moment.

“Well, what if we all went out somewhere together?” Ginny said. 

“‘We’ who?” asked Olivia.

“The three of us and Luna.”

“That could be fun,” said Olivia.

“Yeah, I guess so,” said Rolf.  

“Think Luna’s available tomorrow?” asked Ginny. “We could go down to one of those little seafood restaurants in town. I’ll text her right now.”

--

Sat July 1

Luna and Romilda were hanging out in Romilda’s room, on the bed with the fan blowing on them. Romilda was scrolling around on her phone and Luna was reading a small beat-up romance novel titled Chaste Pioneers.

“So, what are you reading?” Romilda eventually asked, looking disturbed.

“I got it at that charity shop I went to with Sam yesterday,” said Luna. “It’s about American Muggle pioneers having some kind of, um, religious courtship or something.” 

“Are they Amish or something?” 

“..I don’t think so..”

“And why are you reading this?” Romilda asked, examining the cover.

“I like to be immersed in the local culture, learn about the places I visit.”

“I don’t know that this will help you--”

Luna’s phone buzzed.

“Ginny’s asking me if I want to go to dinner with her and Olivia and Rolf tomorrow.”

“Like a double date or something?”

“I guess.”

“Do you want to go?”

Luna sighed. “It’s nice to spend time with friends. I should make a bigger effort to get to know Olivia.”

“I don’t know that you should,” Romilda said darkly.

---

“Wait, so why do you want to do this double date so badly?” Hermione asked, sounding tired. It was a lot later in England than it was in the Pacific Time Zone.

“I just think that Olivia hasn’t really gotten to know Luna and Luna hasn’t really gotten to know her, but I think they would really like each other if they did..” Ginny trailed off. 

“Based on this Instagram you sent me, Olivia seems kind of, um.. How do I put this -- normal? What does ‘basic’ mean again? I think she’s basic, like a standard-issue hot girl --”

“She’s really not!” Ginny objected.

“Ah yes,” said Hermione drily. “The poetry, the potions, lest we forget. But would she really get along with the Luna Lovegood we know and cherish? I don’t know if you can force things like this. It sounds like Olivia is at your house all the time, and hanging out with Luna’s boyfriend. Surely if Luna and Olivia clicked, they would have already figured that out.”

“Things aren’t always that simple. Sometimes you have to let people grow on you. If I recall correctly, a certain Hermione Granger wasn’t wildly enthusiastic about Luna from the jump either.”

“Yes, but I’m not known for being really charming and likable--”

“Oh, Hermione--”

“I’m not fishing for compliments,” said Hermione. “I know myself, and I know my interpersonal skills are just fine, but Olivia sounds like a real charmer, charismatic type, so if she can’t get along with someone easily, doesn’t that seem more telling?”

“I don’t think so, just because Olivia has good people skills that doesn’t mean that she and Luna have gotten the full picture of each other yet. I think if they got to know each other they would appreciate all the other has to offer.”

*

Sun July 2

By some twist of fate, Ginny and Rolf were both held up at the house the next evening and got to the restaurant a little late. 

Luna had spent the afternoon in town, working at a coffee shop and visiting the book store, so she was the first one there and got the table for everyone. Olivia arrived next, looking perfect and glowy as she took off her bicycle helmet and slid onto the bench across from Luna.

“Hi,” Luna said.

“Hey, Luna,” Olivia said, with her perfect smile.

“I haven’t heard from Rolf or Ginny,” Luna said, glancing at her phone, “but they told me this morning they would come over together.”

“Don’t worry,” said Oliva, “Rolf just texted and he said that he and Ginny are on their way.”

“Oh, okay,” Luna said.

Olivia was still looking at her phone and now tapping out a message.

Luna cast around for something to say. “Have you ever eaten here before?”

“Yes, many times,” Olivia said, setting down her phone and unfolding the menu. “I prefer the restaurant over on Court Street, but the mussels here are very fresh, and they give you just the right amount of butter. Where you really want to go, like on a special night out, is over in Bellingham. There’s the cutest little organic place that’s right on the water in this building made out of reclaimed wood and they have such a good dinner and also a high tea service if you go in the afternoon.”

“That sounds lovely,” Luna said. “Maybe you can send me the name later.” 

“Of course. I think I’ve mentioned it to Rolf as well, so he can probably tell you as well.”

“Alright.”

“Rolf tells me that your dad runs, like, a little tabloid or something?”

“Um--”

“Sorry we’re late!” Ginny said, squeezing in next to Olivia. 

“I was getting all tied up talking to Charlie,” Rolf said as he sat down next to Luna. “And Ginny was waiting for me so we could come over together.”

“But don’t let us interrupt,” Ginny said, looking eagerly from one girl to the other. “What were you two talking about?”

“I was just saying that Rolf’s told me all about Luna’s dad’s newsletter. It’s like some kind of tabloid or gossip magazine right?”

“Oh,” Rolf said, uneasily. “I’m not sure I said--”

“It’s actually the most circulated weekly newspaper in wizarding England,” said Ginny, excitedly. “Luna’s dad was fighting government corruption and media censorship at a really important time. There are issues of the Quibbler that Harry has framed in our house.”

“Your house?” Olivia asked, a hand on Ginny’s thigh.

“All of my stuff is still in my room there,” Ginny said, trailing off.

They all studied the menus for a while.

”Luna and Ginny, did you know that Rolf was a chaser on our Quidditch team at Ilvermorny?” said Olivia. “I was the seeker.”

“Well, you were the reserve seeker,” Rolf amended.

“Yes, but remember? That’s only because I was on that t.v. show and I couldn’t commit to every practice.”

“I didn’t know you were on a show,” said Ginny. “In England we barely used any Muggle technologies.”

“Yes, in America we had a wizarding channel on cable. You had to ask for the right person to get it hooked up because there were a few wizards working at the cable companies. My dad actually was a part-owner of the channel,” Olivia said.

A waiter walked over to their table and took their order.

“Were there many other activities you all did at Ilvermorny? Rolf’s told me about the Gobstones Club, which was something we connected over freshman year, or I guess re-connected over,” said Luna, smiling fondly at Rolf.

“You two knew each other before Cambridge?” asked Ginny.

“Yes,” Rolf said. “Our families are friends and we used to go on the occasional trip together. Luna’s dad met mine through his journalism way back at the start of their careers and Xeno would ask my dad to go along with him on expeditions and then he’d write features about my dad’s research.”

“Oh, that sounds interesting!” said Ginny. “I’ll have to go read some back issues of the Quibbler.”

“I think there’s a little picture of me and Rolf in Banff from back when we were about five. Our dads were off looking for a sasquatch or something. My dad ran that picture with the story. When Rolf and I got together my dad sent me a copy of that issue.”

“Baby Luna? That sounds really cute,” said Ginny. “I want to see that.” 

“Wow, it’s crazy that you knew each other back then! I never even heard your name mentioned by anyone in Rolf’s whole family. But speaking of childhood pictures,” Olivia got her phone out. “Rolf’s mom just the other day sent me the funniest picture of me and Rolf at Porpentina’s 90th birthday party. We must have been about three or four. Porpentina is Rolf’s grandma,” she said, glancing at Ginny and Luna. 

“I’ve met her,” Luna said.

“I’m not getting any service in here, so the picture’s not loading..” Olivia said, holding her phone over her head.

“I’m going to pop over to the bathroom,” said Ginny, standing up. “I want to wash my hands before the food gets here. I don’t know why my bike handles are so greasy...”

“My grandma’s ninetieth?” Rolf said, pondering. “Was that in Cape Cod or something?”

“Yes, I think so,” said Olivia.

“I don’t think I ever saw that picture. Huh. How old did you say we were? I thought she was only eighty when I was born, so--”

“It’s so funny how much your mom texts me,” said Olivia, not seeming to hear the question. “When I broke up with Jade I think she was hoping you and I might give it another go. When we were in high school she was always talking to me about letting me wear her old wedding dress.”

“Well, she hasn’t said anything like that to me,” said Rolf, awkwardly, glancing at Luna. “I’m going to go use the restroom as well.”

Rolf left, leaving just Olivia and Luna at the table.

“I’m so sorry if I’m coming across as, like, exclusionary or something,” Olivia said to Luna. “I would hate to make you feel left out. And I’m sure Carrie must love you, though,” she added as an aside, “I haven’t ever heard her talk about you, but I’m sure she would love to have you as a daughter-in-law. 

“It’s just that Rolf and I grew up together. I know, I know you’re a friend of the family as well. But it wasn’t like your thing where you saw him once every couple of years. Rolf asked me to marry him in third grade, he was my first kiss on the playground, you know. So of course his mom saw me as the one for him, and she’s a dear friend of my mom.”

Luna was spared having to acknowledge this speech by the reappearance of their waiter. 

Luna helped slide the drinks to the correct spots, and soon Ginny and Rolf reappeared. When Rolf came back to the table, he leaned over toward them.

“Did you hear about Forrest McAllister’s baby? He was born breathing fire, I guess. They think his girlfriend must have been abusing potions while she was pregnant..”

After a few minutes of Ginny and Luna politely listening as the other two carried on about people from Ilvermorny diagonally across the table, Ginny switched spots with Rolf so she could talk to Luna.

“Hermione’s been texting me non-stop about the bar exam. I guess old Ronald has decided he wants to learn the drums and has been annoying her while she’s studying.”

“That sounds like him,” said Luna. “He was really getting into music when we were in college. When he’d visit Hermione on the weekends he was always talking about different Muggle bands he was getting into, and that was really fun. He made me a playlist a few years ago that I still listen to.”

“Aw, that’s sweet,” said Ginny. “I guess old Celestina Warbeck couldn’t cut it for him forever. My mum is obsessed with her and it’s really ruined Celestina for me. I’ve heard every one of her songs too many times.”

“How could you say that about the Singing Sorceress! Rolf loves her last album.”

“Are you talking shit about You Stole My Cauldron but You Can’t Have My Heart ?” asked Rolf, looking scandalized. “Don’t judge me, Ginny.”

“I would never,” said Ginny, laughing. “You should go hang out with my mum and have a listening party.”

“Who are you guys talking about?” asked Olivia.

“Celestina Warbeck,” said Ginny. “She’s this legendary Welsh singer, who was always on the radio when I was growing up. How come you know her Rolf? I didn’t think she was big in the US.”

Their conversation momentarily paused while the server delivered their meals. 

“My dad was always listening to Wizarding Wireless Network. He had to get a special enchantment on the radio. He said he didn’t want to lose touch with English culture while we were in America.”

“I’ve never heard of her,” said Olivia, sipping her drink. “At Ilvermorny we were more interested in modern music, and underground indie scenes.” She turned her attention back to Rolf. “Oh, you know what else I wanted to tell you, Angela is getting married next summer and she’s having a destination wedding in Ohio of all places.”

“Wait, how is that a destination wedding?” asked Rolf, rejoining his tête-à-tête with Olivia. 

“I was surprised when Ron decided to study at Stanford,” said Luna.

“Surprised he got in?” Ginny said with a snort.

“No! Just surprised he wanted to be so far away and that he and Hermione would do long-distance.”

“Me and my mom think that he was probably sick of being in everyone’s shadow. At Stanford he could kind of be the star of the show for a change. Angelina has a friend who listens to Which Bitch and they were always covering Ron’s paparazzi pictures at Stanford. He was hungover every day it would seem. Augusta Longbottom, of all people, seemed to be following the tabloids, and she was always telling on Ron to Mum and then Mum would send him a Howler about studying.”

“Neville’s grandma is such a gossip,” said Luna. “I do love her though. I’ve stayed with her in Bath because she’s got a summer place there and she’s so funny.”

“I want to visit Augusta Longbottom in Bath!” Ginny exclaimed. “I bet her summer house would be so elegant.”

“Ronald and Hermione are so sweet together though,” said Luna. “They stayed at our apartment last spring break and they bicker so much, but it’s somehow cute.”

“I can’t wait to meet Hermione,” said Olivia, turning away from Rolf. “Ginny’s told me so much about her and I think I’m going to adore her. I love her already.”

“I think she’s going to visit soon,” said Ginny happily. “Oh, and Luna, she was asking if you could give her pointers on Disillusionment while she’s here. I guess she’s trying to improve hers so that she can hide from Ron, because he’s been trying to get her to play Super Smash Brothers when she’s trying to study.”

“I thought Hermione was better than everyone at magic?” said Olivia. “Why would she need help from her? From Luna?”

“Well, no one can beat our Luna for Disillusionment charms,” said Ginny. “But anyway, maybe the three of us could watch a movie. There’s so many big American Muggle rom-coms I want to see. Sleepless in Seattle maybe--” 

Chapter Text

Monday July 3

On Monday morning, Luna laid in bed long after Rolf had left with a whispered goodbye as he headed off to do the morning readings on the beach. 

Luna had finally set a date to go to see the Merpeople, Thursday. So she had a few days to get ready. But that morning, she was feeling a bit flat and unmotivated. 

Eventually, she looked at her phone. Neville had sent her a few memes and she saw that Ginny had reposted an Instagram Reel from dinner last night of them all clinking their drinks together. Luna hadn’t even noticed that Olivia had taken a video. 

She rolled over and video-called Neville. 

“Hey, love,” he said. Neville was wearing sunglasses and framed by a bright blue sky.

“Hi Nev,” Luna. “Where are you?”

“Gran and I are on a mini break beach trip,” he said, swinging the phone over to show Augusta Longbottom, about five feet away, primly upright on her lounge chair under a canopy, dressed in billowy white.

“Hello, Luna,” Augusta called, over the top of her novel. “Still in bed is it? I suppose it’s earlier in the States.”

“Yes, it’s only eight--”

“And don’t worry about the plants, Lune,” said Neville. “I’ve got them set up with a self-watering charm, and we’re headed back Wednesday.”

“You gave me most of those plants. I know you’re taking good care of them.”

“So, how are things?” 

“Oh, pretty good,” Luna said. “I’m headed down to the Mervillage on Thursday so I’m getting ready for that, and tomorrow’s Independence Day so I think we’re all going to a party.”

“Ooh, fun,” said Neville. “Who’s party is it? Like a friend of one of the Ilvermorny people?”

“Yeah, you could say that,” Luna said. “Olivia Steward. She lives on the island. Apparently she’s an old friend of Rolf’s.” 

“Huh,” Neville said. “Rolf knows her? I guess I could have put the pieces together if I had thought about what year they graduated.”

“So you know Olivia?” 

“Well, I know of her. Honestly, Luna. Sometimes I forget how little you engage with the culture!”

“What do you mean?”

“Luna. Everyone follows her! She’s like the pre-eminent Magical influencer! So, she’s friends with Rolf, huh? I mean--” he drew a deep breath, “ I do not follow her, because I am an intellectual. However, I do take a scroll through her page every now and again. So she lives on the same teeny little island that you all are on?”

“Yes--”

“Oh Merlin, I’m looking at her Tiktok right now and Ginny and Rolf are all over her recent videos! And Charlie Weasley? And, Godric, is that Terry Boot?”

“Probably--”

“So where are you? I’m not seeing any Luna in these videos. And what? In this Reel Ginny reposted, she and Rolf are tagged, but you aren’t?”

“I don’t think she likes me,” Luna said, scrunching deeper under the covers.

“What? But didn’t you tell me that you and Ginny are friends again? So how is Olivia hanging out with your boyfriend and your old bestie and not you?”

“I don’t know,” Luna said, her voice muffled by the covers.

“Is she trying to steal your life?” Neville asked, eyes widening perceptibly even behind his sunglasses.

“Who’s trying to steal Luna’s life?” asked Augusta.

Neville crawled over to include his grandmother in the frame again. “Olivia Steward, Gran. Do you know anything about her?”

“I wouldn’t characterize her as ‘trying to steal my life’ per se--” Luna said, head popping up over the covers again.

“Hm, I believe I read a piece in New York’s Witch about her not so long ago. Isn’t she the latest twig on the Ilvermorny Steward’s family tree? A young witch with no job who just posts videos online, correct?”

“Well, she runs a strawberry farm,” Luna put in.

“Have you met her or her family?” Neville asked.

“Yes, I believe so,” Augusta said. “Maybe some fifteen years ago, so she was just a little girl. We didn’t hear much from the Stewards during our war years, I’ll tell you that much. Other American Wizarding families offered safe houses, bore the expense of international Portkeys, worked in intelligence operations with us. A few even sent accomplished duelers to the Order of the Phoenix. But not them. I thought I had heard a rumor that they lost money on a bad investment some years ago.”

“It must not have been too much though,” Neville said. “It seems like they’re always on the society pages.”

“Maybe it wasn’t the big setback everyone seemed to think it was. Not that I would be engaging in gossip, of course.”

“Certainly not,” Neville said. “I’m shocked at the very notion of my dear grandmother working at the rumor mill. Augusta Longbottom would never--”

“You’re not too old to be boxed on the ears, young man,” Augusta warned, as Neville shuffled back over to his beach towel. 

---

July 4, Tuesday

The whole house had been invited to Olivia’s Fourth of July party. 

“Wow, she’s still doing these, huh?” Margaret, looking at the invitation, where it sat perched on top of the fridge. The card featured letterpressed fireworks that were exploding in an animated loop. 

Most of the house was eating breakfast. Charlie was making French toast with Romilda’s assistance.

“You’re getting eggshells everywhere! How are you so old and still so incompetent?”

“If you would get your elbow out of my space-”

Maude touched the invitation, reverently. “It’s such nice paper quality. I love feeling the indents of letterpress, especially Wizarding letterpress that moves. This is the company who’s going to make my wedding invitations.”

“You’re engaged?” Terry asked, his head popping up from over the top of the newspaper.

“No,” she admitted, a little grumpily.

“Are you even dating someone?” Terry asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.

“Mind your own business,” she said, putting the invitation back. 

“Why are you so interested? Are you trying to date her, Terry?” Romilda demanded.

“Of course not,” he said, rolling his eyes.

Sam looked over from where he was scooping beans into the coffee maker. “Does she always have a big barbecue? I remember hearing about that, sort of... I didn’t know that many people from her year.”

“Yeah, it was always a big deal in our grade,” Margaret said. “When we were little her parents made her invite everyone, but I fell off the invite list once Mr. and Mrs. Steward determined that we were old enough to deal with social rejection.”

“Was it fun?” Charlie asked, as he continued picking out flecks of eggshells from the large mixing bowl.

“I mean it was usually at their summer house and it was always very fancy,” said Margaret. “I mean, I’m sure Rolf could say way more about it. Is he still asleep?”

“He’s been volunteering to do early morning observations on the beach. I hadn’t even included that in the research plan for this summer, but it makes our research more thorough,” Charlie said, finally tipping an egg-soaked bread into the frying pan.

“Why would we go celebrate the Fourth of July, anyway?” Terry said, turning a page of the paper. “Why should we be happy that these Americans got independence? It’s anti-English. And barbecued food is full of carcinogens.”

“Being anti-English is good,” said Maude. “No one likes England. You guys are, like, the original colonizers.” 

“Oh, surely people still like some British things,” Charlie said. “Like a good old plate of beans and toast.”

“And, like America is so much better,” said Terry. “All you guys do is overturn governments, refuse to sign climate accords and flood the world with your terrible restaurant chains.”

“Oh, and I’m supposed to apologize to you because people like Starbucks?” Maude demanded.

“I mean our big exports are pretty terrible,” said Margaret thoughtfully. “Like Walmart? McDonalds? They’re not amazing ambassadors.”

--

The party was in full swing by the time Luna and Romilda arrived. They hadn’t wanted to go for the whole event, but Luna was even further delayed when Neville sent her a text saying that Augusta was currently typing up a text to Newt Scamander about Rolf’s behavior. Apparently she and Neville had been watching Olivia’s Tiktoks and Augusta didn’t think that Rolf was demonstrating sufficient loyalty to his girlfriend.

“Ah, let her, Luna!” Romilda complained, as Luna frantically texted Neville.

“I don’t want Augusta to tell Rolf’s granddad any of this!”

“Why not?” Romilda said. “I’d love Augusta to run my love life! Try respecting your elders for a change, Luna.”

Most of the house had come over right at 4 pm, and were mingling with the other guests in Olivia’s expansive yard or ambling along the rocky shore. Rolf was manning the barbecue and Ginny was bustling in and out of the house with big platters of watermelon and crudités and bowls of whole grain chips. There were probably over a hundred guests spread throughout the house and grounds.

“I’ve been wondering if she has any friends on the island or around here. It seems like she comes over to our house, like, every single day. Do you think any of these people are local?” Romilda asked Luna as they left their bicycles near a big leaf maple and crossed the sun-dappled yard.

“Well, she kind of is in the middle of nowhere,” Luna said. “Only a few thousand people live on this island, and most people aren’t our age, let alone Magical. Maybe she knows some other farmers?”

“It kind of makes you wonder why she lives here,” Romilda said. “Like, sure, it’s beautiful. But doesn’t it seem like someone like her would live in a bigger city? Especially if she’s got all this family money? If I were her, I’d be in New York or LA hanging out with other young influencer types, not stuck on a remote island with a bunch of retired hippies where it’s raining ten months out of the year.”

“I mean, it seems like she really likes this, uh -- bucolic lifestyle.”

They spread out one of Aunt Florence’s quilts near Sam and Terry. Soon Maude and Margaret, Persephone and Charlie appeared and their little gaggle ate hot dogs and veggie burgers and drank fancy local kombucha and beer while the sun sparkled on the water. Ginny and Rolf came by to say hello, but both seemed to have been roped into co-hosting duties. Various Ilvermorny alumni stopped by to talk to Maude and Margaret and Sam. 

Luna was surprised to see Marietta Edgecombe, who she had known at Hogwarts, but never particularly liked even before she told Professor Umbridge about Dumbledore’s Army. 

“Hi girls,” Marietta said, stopping to kneel in the grass beside them. “I saw you from across the way,” she gestured vaguely to a group of young women sitting in the shade of the house. “How are you doing? And how do you two know Olivia?”

“Oh, hi Marietta,” said Romilda, sounding somewhat annoyed. “Well, we’re staying on this island. Just about a mile and a half away. We’re here with Charlie Weasley helping with his research project.”

“Oh, what fun! Charlie Weasley, huh?” she asked, peering around the patchwork of blankets until she spotted him. “And oh Merlin, is that Terry Boot?” She waved at Terry, who wiggled a few fingers at her, and then turned back to Sam. 

“Yes, Ginny’s here too,” Luna said.

“Oh, I saw her in the kitchen earlier. I was so pleased to see her here! We must have been chatting for an hour. Such a fun surprise, though we do see each other rather often,” Marietta said. “I’m here with some friends from the news outlet I work at. The Magical section of New York Magazine . Some of them went to Ilvermorny and the rest of us tagged along. My friend Angela is a close friend of Olivia’s and she’s been here so many times. Olivia actually paid for a private Portkey for our transportation. ”

“Cool,” Romilda said, sipping her beer.

Marietta continued to perch there in the grass for a few more moments, looking around their group. “Well, I guess I should be getting back,” she said. “Lovely to see you girls!”

“Did she ever, like, say sorry to anyone for ratting us all out to Umbridge?” Romilda asked. 

“I don’t know,” said Luna. “I think Harry told me that Kingsley Shacklebolt ended up Obliviating her? Maybe she doesn’t remember.”

“Oh, yeah. But someone must have explained to her how she got all that acne, right?”

“Who knows,” said Luna.

“Well, her forehead looks fine now,” Romilda said dismissively.

As the sun began to set, Olivia stepped on top of a chair and announced that it was almost time for fireworks.

“I have a special cocktail ready in the crystal carafes,” she said, her voice magically amplified. “It’s my world famous strawberry frozen margs! They’re right over by the cooler!” Several groups cheered. “And once everyone has gotten a drink we’ll start the fireworks show! Now they’re not Muggle fireworks,” she said, reassuringly. “These are magical fireworks that are imbued with spells to conceal them from Muggles! There’s no gunpowder and they are completely nontoxic and biodegradable.”

She gestured toward the cliff edge where they could see the moon and a few stars beginning to come out. A big blonde guy tapped a few paper packages with his wand and the show began. 

“I guess the secret’s out as far as the Harry-Ginny split goes,” Romilda whispered to Luna, gesturing to where Olivia was sitting on a blanket, her arm around Ginny.

“How did you know about that?” Luna whispered back. The fireworks were not as loud as Muggle ones, but the oohs and aahs covered their conversation well enough.

“Please,” Romilda said, rolling her eyes. “Number one, I’m a font of knowledge. Number two, I owe everything to my woman's intuition and laser sharp perception. And number three, Ginny is constantly gabbing on the phone with Hermione about the whole situation and I share a wall with her.”

--

Wednesday July 5

Ginny woke up the next morning to her phone buzzing. She was receiving a lot of text messages. She glanced at the clock on her phone, it was only six. She opened the messaging app and started reading. It was her group chat with Hermione, Fleur and Angelina.

Fleur: Ginny, are you dating the American influencer Olivia Steward???

Fleur: Gabrielle says Olivia’s been posting lots of pictures with you??? At her fourth of july party??? Apparently its the event of the summer for young American magical society???? listen to this podcast episode!!!

Angelina: ?? are you? what’s going on with Harry?

Hermione: Hope you’re alright! Call me if you want xx

Angelina: i’m listening to this episode. how does a witch draw this much Muggle attention to herself on social media without getting in trouble??

Hermione: Americans are very lax about the International Statute of Secrecy. It’s actually something a fellow student is writing about in my seminar this quarter. Besides any instagram post that is ‘likely to reveal magic’ can only be shown in the wizarding feeds.

Angelina: Getting verified for the wizarding feeds is such a hassle.....

Ginny groaned. It was too early for this, and she had drunk a lot of margaritas last night. She hadn’t thought anyone would see a few cheek kisses and hugs in the dark at the fireworks show. 

No messages from Harry, still.

---

Wednesday July 5

Everyone else who hadn't been awoken by International Sister-In-Law Group Chat got up a few hours later than usual. The group was drinking coffee and feebly suggesting their favorite hangover charms, none of which seemed to be that effective. 

Ginny alone could face the bright morning sun, thanks to the hangover potion Olivia had tucked into her sweatshirt pocket last night. She might have been feeling physically ship-shape, but emotionally, not so much. Unable to fall back asleep after reading and not responding to the texts and also not listening to this podcast, she had gone out to the garden and had laid down in the grass. She spent the next few hours listening to the fairies chatter in the morning mist.  

By 11 am Charlie, Rolf, and Luna sat near the computer, coffee cups in hand, as the printer churned out readings from the Sea Dragons’ trackers. Terry and Sam sat squashed together into one big chair. Persephone sat across the room, writing in a notebook. Ginny watered a few houseplants that Olivia had given her, from cuttings of her own plants.

Charlie watched the read-out as it was printed. 

“I don’t understand how number twelve is all the way over by Monterrey already,” Charlie said, checking the printings’ GPS data and moving pins around on the glowing map that was spread over the living room table. “She was just near Fox Island yesterday morning. And look fourteen is off in the middle of the ocean, all by himself.”

“Do you think they might have some sort of Apparition-like power?” Rolf asked. 

“Or maybe they fly over water much faster than they swim?” suggested Terry.

“Maybe..” said Charlie as he and Luna continued to stare at the map. “I need to get a new GPS, mine got really wet yesterday and it stopped working, so I’m not able to double check that the trackers are giving the right data when I see the dragons during field work.”

Romilda, who had been walking past the living room with a bowl of ice cream, said, “Charlie, did you not put an Impervius charm on it?” She shook her head, “Amateur hour.”

“Slipped my mind,” said Charlie, scratching his neck.

“Well, just put an Impervius on your phone and use that,” said Romilda, standing in the hallway and eating a spoonful of her dessert.

“I don’t have a phone--”

“What?” Romilda said, nearly dropping her bowl. “In this day and age you don’t have a phone? Not even an old flip phone?”

“No--”

“You just use Floo and owls?” Romilda asked, looking disgusted.

“Yes--”

“There’s nothing wrong with that,” Persephone piped up primly from across the room. “My whole family tries to use as little Muggle technologies as we can. When wizards rely on Muggle technology, magical innovation grinds to a halt.”

“Oka-ay,” Romilda said, rolling her eyes. “Well, Charlie, I’m taking your ass down to Anacortes or Bellingham--”

“I hardly think that’s an appropriate way to communicate with our instructor--” Persephone began.

Romilda continued, louder, “Ginny’s got a phone. Maybe she’ll let you be on her family plan. I guess you could be on mine if you want to. There’s an open spot.” 

Persephone seemed to be grinding her teeth. “There’s space on my family plan too!” she spit out. 

Charlie looked like a deer in the headlights. “Uh, lots to consider...”

Terry and Sam were watching the volley with wide eyes as they sat in their one big chair, ostensibly solving the crossword.

Persephone got up, huffily, and turned to Terry and Sam as she was leaving, “This is quite old furniture and I don’t know that two boys ought to be sitting in one antique chair!”

---

Thursday July 6

Luna, who had finally heard back from the Black Lake Mermish Chief, was biking into Friday Harbor for a morning coffee before her scheduled meeting with the Puget Sound Mermish community. She had her laptop with her and was planning to review the preliminary interview questions she had prepared as she enjoyed a pastry. 

Luna was hoping to ask the Merpeople about the effects of climate change and ocean acidification on their community. From what Luna had gathered, this was being studied by the Mermish people, but there was very little communication or translation of their research into human languages. Luna had double-majored in Mermish at Cambridge, after independent study at Hogwarts, and spoke fluently. All merpeople spoke the same basic language, but local dialects varied, so Luna hoped the language barrier wouldn’t be too big.

Being Luna, with her head in the clouds, she almost rolled right into Olivia who was standing down at the ferry terminal with a dozen wooden shipping crates, deep in conversation with a blonde ferry worker.

“Watch where you’re going!” Olivia said, turning. Seeing Luna, “Oh sorry, Luna.”

“No, no, I’m so sorry,” Luna said, hopping off her bike. “I hope I didn’t damage anything!” 

Olivia moved slightly in front of the crates, “I’m sure they’re fine, I’m just shipping some strawberries to buyers on the mainland.” The blonde ferry worker nodded.

“Okay,” said Luna. “Well, I’m off to get coffee! I’m sure I’ll see you around soon.”

That afternoon, finally in her wetsuit and swim shoes, Luna applied the Bubblehead charm and lowered herself into the water off the rocks. If she got lost, she had a charm to create a map on any surface to show where she was and where her destination lay. She only had swam about a quarter mile when she started to see the rock dwellings of the Mervillage. These looked quite different from the ones in the Black Lake and the two coastal Mervillages she had visited in her time as an undergraduate. She made a note in her wax paper notebook to research architectural styles.

She swam into the main square where she saw a mermaid waiting for her. They introduced themselves and Luna followed the mermaid, whose name was unpronounceable by most humans, and doesn’t translate to any word in English, to her house. 

In Mermish 

“So the group of humans you’re with, they’re studying the Salish Sea Dragon,” asked the mermaid.

“Yes, does your community know much about them?”

“Yes, though that’s not our name for the dragons. They’re an important animal to our community. We use their poison in our most elemental magic. It seems they’ve been having a bad year. There are several young dragons that used to spend time in our village, eating kelp from our gardens, but several have disappeared and they haven’t come back.”

“Do they migrate?”

“Not at this time of year,” said the mermaid. “We’ve seen the trackers your friends have put on them. Do they know where the dragons have gone? Sometimes migrant orca whales eat them.”

“Do you mind if I use my wand to create a map?”

“Go ahead.”

“Charlie said their trackers are showing them swimming south, all the way to Oregon,” she tapped on the map, “and some as far as central California. It seems that one went straight out to the middle of the Pacific.”

“That is very unusual,” said the mermaid. “They don’t normally migrate until winter, and there is an established winter nesting spot here,” she pointed to  Baja California. “They don’t really go anywhere besides their summer residence here, and their winter areas there, as far as we know.”

“It seems too sudden and dramatic of a change to be solely caused by climate change or ocean acidification, don’t you think?” asked Luna.

“I agree. We may need to collaborate with your team and see if they can offer any information or help with this. It’s a good thing we’ve met, Luna.”

*

It was late when Luna crawled back onto the rocks. She had stayed late with the mermaid, talking to her and a few other merpeople about the Sea Dragons as well as Luna’s personal research. She was wondering especially about how the death of coral reefs, which are an important part of Mervillages, was affecting them.

It was dark outside and Luna was exhausted, so she grabbed her bike and Apparated straight back to the house. The students had barely been Apparating this summer, after Charlie’s many reminders. Most of them liked the exercise of biking anyway.

The house was starting to quiet down for bedtime when she got back, though plenty of people were still in the yard, softly chatting and playing board games and drinking beer. Luna peeked out the door and saw Rolf, Ginny and Olivia playing poker on a picnic blanket. She considered going out and sitting with them, but she was cold to the bone and wanted dinner and a shower. 

She went into the kitchen to get some leftover pasta salad from dinner. Charlie, who was sitting in the breakfast nook with Romilda, both typing on their laptops, was relieved to see her.

“Do you think it’s usually going to be late nights at the Mervillage? I just want to know if I should worry.”

“We’ll have to see. The Black Lake mermaids were crepuscular and mostly wanted to meet around dawn or dusk, but I haven’t learned too much about this community yet. I’ll share with you what the Merpeople have been observing and documenting about the Sea Dragons because they’ve got some numbers they wanted me to show you. How was your work today?”

“It’s been alright,” said Charlie, rubbing his forehead. “The rate that we’ve been finding more sea dragons has really fallen off. Based on the amount we saw the first week here, I was expecting that we’d find more as we went on, but we haven’t encountered any new dragons in days. Our project is in partnership with the Department for the Preservation of Magical Creatures, and I’m writing up the weekly report right now. Maybe they’ll be able to provide a reason as to why there are fewer dragons than we were expecting.”

“Haven’t you read all the available research?” asked Romilda. “What would they be able to tell you that you don’t already know?”

“You never know if there’s some non-public research they might be able to provide--”

Persephone walked through the kitchen in her tartan flannel nightgown, reading glasses on top of her head, holding a mug of tea. She looked at the cozy scene at the breakfast nook, with a slight frown. “What are you working on, Charlie?” she asked. “It’s late to be doing computer work. The blue light is going to disrupt your circadian rhythm.”

“I’m just --” Charlie began. 

“Professor McGonagall, what are you doing here?” said Romilda.

“Professor McGonagall is here?” Charlie said, looking around the kitchen in confusion. 

“I was making a joke about Persephone’s outfit.”

“I hardly expected my colleagues to mock my choice in clothing..” Persephone began, as Luna darted around her and headed upstairs with her pasta.

Luna had just wriggled out of the wetsuit and thrown on her old Gobstones Clubs sweatpants and a Holyhead Harpies tee when Romilda barged in and bounced onto the bed.  

“Man, you’ve still got it bad for Ginny, huh?” Romilda said as she saw Luna’s shirt.

“What?” 

“That’s her number on the back! I know things,” Romilda said. 

Luna looked at her blankly.

“Oh, did you not realize I knew about you guys? What do you think, I was living under a rock sixth year?”

Luna, still shivering slightly, didn’t dignify the comment with a response and sat down at her desk where she had set the bowl of pasta and started eating.

“God, it’s so boring when you’re out all evening and it’s just the Olivia Steward show around here,” said Romilda. “At least there’s good old Persephone to bother. Speaking of people who’ve got it bad, there’s someone with a very big, and very inappropriate crush on our teacher! For shame.”

“He’s not really our teacher, is he? He’s not grading us, we’re just helping him with his research project.”

“Oh, so it's alright to have a boss-employee relationship, is it now, Lovegood?”

Luna rolled her eyes, and continued scooping up noodles and cherry tomatoes.

“Maybe we should research Persephone next... find out how such a big stick got lodged up her butt...”

“I really want to take a shower--” said Luna.

“Okay, okay I had a reason I came in here. I still think there’s something off about Olivia and we need to get to the bottom of it. She’s got Ginny wrapped around her finger and it looks like it’s going the same way for Rolf. It’s your duty, and mine as your nosy friend to find out more about her whole ‘deal,’” Romilda said, sketching air quotes around the last word.

“I don’t know,” Luna said, reaching for a throw blanket from the bed and wrapping it around herself. “You’ve already interrogated Margaret and Maude. What more can we do?”

“Glad you asked,” Romilda said, reaching into her pocket. “I ordered this Sneakoscope, rush delivery from the Wizarding district in Seattle and take a look at this.”

She went over to the window and opened it, letting Olivia’s voice float up from the yard, at which the Sneakoscope immediately started spinning.

“Those don’t work as well as people used to think,” said Luna. “My dad did a feature on a research team who published a really landmark paper proving that they only have about a thirty percent efficacy rate--”

“Whatever!” Romilda said, slamming the window. “My real coup de grâce here is that I figured out Jade’s last name. You remember Jade? Olivia’s ex-girlfriend we’ve been hearing about?”

“Wow, how did you ever manage to find out such sensitive information?” Luna asked, rolling her eyes. “Was it by asking Margaret?”

“Did I turn dreamy Luna Lovegood sarcastic?” asked Romilda. “Tell your dad to stop the presses, there’s the real headline! And yes, yes I did ask Margaret. Then I found Jade on Instagram, and then I messaged her, and she is living in Boston and there’s a public portkey that goes from Seattle to Boston a few times a day.”

“So you’re saying we should take our interrogation skills on the road?”

“That’s exactly what I think. But what sucks is that she’s out of town right now, and like waaay out of town. She said she’s just left for Nigeria and she’s not going to be back until the start of August. But she says that when she’s back, she’ll meet us at the botanical garden.”

Chapter Text

Friday July 7

The next afternoon, Luna sat at the picnic table of the county park while the other students waded into the cold water with Charlie. They were recording which dragons had laid eggs and how many and testing the water’s makeup. Luna was painting an illustration of an adult Sea Dragon with an unusual coloration that Charlie was going to label anatomically. 

Her latest book, this one from a yard sale, sat next to her. It was about a zealous and prayerful woman who sets out on the Oregon Trail and encounters a gold miner with sapphire eyes, whose initial aloofness hides a heart full of passion.

Sam Roblee sat down on the bench next to her, taking a long drink of water, before picking up the book. “ Righteous Remembrances ? What are you reading?”

“It’s a romance novel. I’m learning about the American west.”

“Are you now?” Sam asked doubtfully, reading the back.

“I got it for a dollar last week. It’s pretty good so far. Lots of sublimated desire and longing. The love interest is so strong that his bulging muscles sometimes rip his shirts. He’s been in rough mining towns for so long he’s forgotten the touch of a woman’s soft skin,” she said matter-of-factly.

“Ah,” said Sam.

They sat together quietly for a while.

“So what’s going on with you and Rolf? Are you guys doing okay?”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“I mean you guys are together, right? Don’t you share a room?”

“We’ve been dating since our freshman year of college.”

“I knew it!” Sam said. “Terry thought he was your cousin or something.”

“Why would I share a bed with my cousin--?”

“Who’s Luna’s cousin?” Rolf had come up to the table to drink some water. 

“Oh, no one,” said Sam.

Sam and Luna sat in an awkward silence until Rolf screwed the lid back onto his water bottle, and without another word to either of them, headed back over to the water. 

Sam raised his eyebrows meaningfully at Luna.

“Olivia comes by the beach when he’s doing morning observations and brings him tea.”

“That’s nice of her, I guess.”

“And then she does yoga on the shore.”

“Sounds uncomfortable given that the shore is rocks and barnacles.”

“All I’m saying is watch out!”

---

On Friday evening, Ginny came over to Olivia’s house, planning to eat dinner and watch a movie. But after dinner, they hurried down to the seashore with Olivia’s blanket, with the expensive softening charm that made any surface it lay over as soft as a featherbed, to catch the sunset. And the sun set far below the horizon, but the cool summer night was so peaceful they stayed and stayed. In the dark Ginny told Olivia things she hadn’t told anyone else. 

She hadn’t felt this close to someone since sixth year, with Luna, when they told each other anything and everything. When they needed a safe harbor in that otherwise unbearable year. 

Ginny never ended up telling Harry what went on with her and Luna during sixth year. (And that one time during seventh year. Just once.) Technically Harry had broken up with her before he went off to find the Horcruxes, so it wasn’t like she had cheated on him, at least during sixth year. But what had happened with Luna was so special, such a quiet and cozy love, so domestic. It was too precious to her to explain in the cold light of day. She didn’t want to cheapen it. And Harry must have heard about it anyway, so it’s not like he had no idea. But Ginny just didn’t want to share what other people didn’t already know.

She didn’t tell Olivia about Luna either, but Olivia guessed.

“I see the way you look at each other,” Olivia said, Ginny’s head on her lap. “She loves Rolf, I can see that, but there’s something between you two as well.” She gently ran her fingers through Ginny’s hair.

Ginny looked out at the dark sea, with the slight green glow coming from far out under the water, at the Mermish village where Luna might be even now, visiting with the Merpeople. 

“You know how bad things were for us in England, right before Harry finally finished off Voldemort. Luna was my rock. She was the only good thing.”

“Were you in love with her?”

Ginny’s eyes traced the glowing horizon. “Yes.”

“What about when Harry came back?”

“That’s the question isn’t it?” Ginny looked up at the night sky. “I loved him, I loved her, and now I’m not with either of them.” 

“What I love about this world,” Olivia said, “is all the possibilities: all the paths and where they might lead. You have so many opportunities, Ginny, I don’t even know if you see them all. Do you like where you’re going?”

“Right now? Yes.”

And as Ginny reached up, Olivia leaned down and their lips met.

----

Saturday July 8

After days of incessant nagging, Charlie agreed to go to Anacortes and at least look at the phones. Romilda insisted that they leave the house at 8 am on Saturday. 

“What an uncharacteristically specific and early hour for you to insist on,” said Luna as she and Romilda ate their oatmeal in the breakfast nook. Charlie had run down to the beach to check on a nesting site before they set off. 

Romilda pointed to the wall that separated them from the living room, where Persephone’s voice was drifting through. “She’s always doing a Floo call on Saturday morning with her sister and parents.”

“Afraid she’s going to steal Charlie away from you?”

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous,” said Romilda, stirring her oatmeal. “Charlie is so old it honestly disgusts me. I have no interest in him, but I don’t need Persephone sucking the fun out of everything all day long. Why she thinks that being an absolute wet blanket will draw in suitors is unclear to me.”

Romilda drove the van, because as she put it, she didn’t trust Charlie to willingly drive them to the phone store.

On the ferry’s passenger deck, Charlie kept running his hands nervously through his hair, until his hair stuck up like the crest of some unusual orange bird. 

“What’s wrong with you?” asked Romilda, as they moved through the line in the ferry’s galley, buying coffee and somewhat stale pastries.

“What do you mean?” asked Charlie.

“You seem stressed, Charlie,” said Luna, patting him on the shoulder.

Charlie sighed. “I’m a bit worried about the email I sent to the Department. Salish Sea Dragons are such a highly protected species and there’s a lot of illegal smuggling of them for their poison and as exotic pets. I had to sign a lot of forms swearing that no one in our program has ever been involved in any illegal activity and you’ll remember we all had extensive background checks.”

“So you’re worried they’ll be suspicious about the low dragon numbers?”

“Yes, basically.”

“Well, that could be for any number of reasons!” said Luna. “They’re a severely under-researched species. Surely they can’t shoot the messenger for just reporting on what we’re finding.”

“And you know,” Romilda added, “once you have a smartphone you won’t have to worry about what emails are waiting back at home. You’ll be able to read stressful emails anywhere you want.”

“Great...”  

They sat down in a booth by the windows, islands passing by. Luna added to the jigsaw puzzle spread out on the table. 

“I think we should go to an AT&T store,” Romilda said, consulting her phone. “Because then I can add you to my plan and I get pretty good reception.”

Charlie was staring resignedly out the window.

---

Saturday July 8

On Saturday morning, Ginny woke up for the second time in Olivia’s bed. This time Olivia was still in it, asleep. Ginny turned over and watched Olivia sleeping. Ginny knew it was a well-worn cliche but Olivia looked so innocent, so guileless asleep. Not the dynamic woman Ginny had always seen before, who at all times seemed to be midway through some complicated scheme or another. As if feeling Ginny’s eyes, she began to stir. 

“Wow, did the famously energetic Olivia Steward sleep in past five?” Ginny teased, giving her a kiss on her soft ear.

Olivia opened her eyes and looked confused for a brief moment, then her face warmed with a smile.“Wow,” she said, reaching for her phone. “How late is it? Oh my gosh, it’s eight? I don’t think I’ve slept in this long since,” she paused to think. “Maybe since junior year of high school?” She turned away to tap on her phone for a moment or two.

“So after your Fourth of July party you still were up at five the next morning? I don’t think I even fell asleep until one.”

“My circadian rhythm is very balanced. I take lemon balm and valerian root sometimes.”  

In the kitchen, Olivia made them a pot of herbal tea. 

“I normally start the day off with water, but tea is such a fun indulgence sometimes,” she said as she whisked egg whites for omelets. “What do you normally have in the morning?”

“I usually have black tea or coffee with milk or cream,” Ginny said, sitting on a stool by the counter. “I’ve gotten into a cereal routine in the last few years because I keep being sponsored by the Magical division of Wheaties and they send it to me for free.”

Olivia laughed. “That’s amazing. I’ll have to see if I can track down a box. Not that I would eat breakfast cereal, of course, besides my homemade granola. Oh, I should have asked. Would you prefer that to omelets?”

Later Olivia asked, “want to come to San Diego and stay at my parents’ beach house?” 

Olivia and Ginny were lying on beach towels on the dock of the little marshy lake. Olivia had brought them strawberry and almond butter sandwiches on her homemade bread. Ginny had gone with Olivia to the co-op to grind the almonds and the strawberry jam was Olivia’s special low-sugar recipe she sold at the farmer’s market. She never marketed it as low-sugar though. “Ugh, that’s so passé. No, I call it three-ingredient jam, because it’s just strawberry, lemon and fruit pectin.” 

Olivia had also brought her special roasted chickpeas and big multi-colored carrots to snack on. When they stopped by Aunt Florence’s house so Ginny could change her clothes (“you really don’t have to-- you're just my size and you would look so cute in some outfits I have in mind) she grabbed a quart container of Luna’s rosemary iced tea. 

Olivia transformed a pebble into a cup with a tap of her wand and poured herself some tea. “I love Rolf’s simple syrups. He actually didn’t know how to make an infused syrup until I taught him the summer before junior year of high school.”

“I think Luna made this one, actually,” said Ginny. 

“I was just thinking the tea seems a little sweeter than how Rolf would make it,” she said, peering into the cup. “It’s good, but I think I can only have a little bit, because I don’t want too much sugar. But anyway, what do you think, want to come to San Diego? My fireplace is connected with the beach house through the Floo network, so it wouldn’t be that hard to get to.”

“That sounds fun,” Ginny said, hesitantly. “Would you be bringing me as, like, a friend?”

“Well, my parents won’t pry into our relationship, but they’re not, like, homophobes or anything, if that’s what you’re wondering.

“When would we go?”

“Want to go tomorrow? Just for a night or two?”

“Really?”

“Yeah, my mom texted me and said they might take the boat out for a spin. Let me just text my friend to ask him to bring the strawberries down to the ferry for me while we're gone.”

------

Sunday July 9

On Sunday afternoon, when Ginny and Olivia stepped through the fireplace at the Steward’s San Diego beach house, they could hear someone bustling around in the next room. Olivia took Ginny’s hand in hers and led the way.

“You girls are just in time,” Elizabeth Steward said, stepping forward and pecking each girl on the cheek. “Hi Ginny, I’m Olivia’s mama,” she said, taking the hands of a the rather startled Ginny. “Call me Liza. Your dad’s already down at the boat, so let’s go.”

Ginny and Olivia left their bags in a pile in the hallway and followed Liza out the sliding glass door. She led them across a wide grassy lawn, toward the beach. As they walked, the grass turned longer, golden, then turned to sand and they reached the long private dock to a white boat.

“She’s just about 50 feet long,” Liza said as they walked down the dock. “One advantage we have over the Muggles at the, ugh, public marina, is a few of the self-maintenance charms we had set on the boat. We never have to haul out to clean off barnacles. And the engine is just for show. It runs completely off magic, so we save a bundle on fuel. And as Olivia points out, it makes the boat very eco friendly. We have an expert come and check the charms every few months. So you see, Ginny, it’s actually quite inexpensive to keep up. I don’t want you thinking we’re extravagant. Honestly almost any Wizarding family could easily afford a boat like this with a little thought and planning in their budget.”

On board Ginny met Olivia’s little brother, Jacob. He had tan skin like his sisters, his dark curls ruffling in the wind. He was 20 years old, dressed in a pair of little tan shorts with perfect cuffs at mid-thigh and a boxy linen short-sleeved button down. He looked like he had stepped out of a cologne ad; he looked perfect aboard the Steward’s yacht. 

Liza and Olivia sat across the deck, discussing one of Liza’s cousins, while Ginny sat down beside Jacob, who was at a table of olives, cheese, crackers and caviar.

“So glad to meet you,” Jacob said, shaking Ginny’s hand. “I’ve always wanted to. You're an icon to me. Dated Harry Potter, youngest starting chaser on the Holyhead Harpies in 20 years. I’ve read every interview you’ve done, I especially love the one from last Winter’s issue of Magical Her and the one where you talk about your history with Harry in the context of flying in Her Quidditch . I love what the Holyhead Harpies do by the way, the whole no men thing. Very second-wave feminism, very Lilith Fair.”

“Thanks,” Ginny muttered through a mouthful of brie. 

“I love you and Olivia together. It’s giving power couple, it’s giving trans-Atlantic,” he said, looking Ginny up and down. “She’s more lipstick, you’re tomboy. It’s really working.” 

Ginny wasn’t sure how to respond to this so she made polite hums of affirmation around her gherkin.

“My sister’s creating her own mythology; it’s very modern.” Jacob continued, pulling out his phone. Ginny watched him update his Instagram story with a picture of their charcuterie board. “She’s the original main character. No one at Ilvermorny wore hand-knitted pieces, let alone crocheted pieces before Olivia did. Olivia taught herself how to knit and crochet and then she brought back woolens with a vengeance her junior year.”

“My mom’s a big knitter,” Ginny offered.

“If you ask me, and maybe this is obvious, Olivia knows how to package herself, the self, if you will. That’s why she’s so popular online. She’s peddling authenticity. People our age crave that, even when we know it’s intentionally done. And besides that, she’s giving her followers escapism. I love to watch her Tiktoks on the subway, right after some old homeless man swears me out, or a rat has just run over my feet. Then I see Olivia gallivanting in the strawberry patch and I plan a visit. Then I get all the way to her little island and I remember it’s just my bitchy sister. I prefer our parasocial relationship over our real life relationship.”

Olivia’s father, Willard, was sitting inside the cabin at the helm and steering the boat. When he caught Ginny glancing at him, he took his cigar out of his mouth and waved.

Olivia laid out some towels on the sun deck and had Ginny and Jacob come join her. With a casual flick of her wand they were soon all covered in sunscreen. Olivia lay in the middle and showed Jacob posts from mutual acquaintances, explaining what was funny about them to Ginny. “Can you believe she’s vegan now? She was always trying to sneak away from Ilvermorny to get Big Macs.”

As the sun began to set, Willard steered them back to their dock and they all headed back to the house.

“We usually change for dinner,” Olivia said as she led Ginny to their room, where their suitcases had already been unpacked and their clothes hung up in the closets. 

They were tired and a little sundazed from the afternoon on the boat. Ginny flopped down on the immaculately white bedspread, and the dozen pillows. Olivia sat down next to her and ran a cool hand down Ginny’s back. Ginny turned over and Olivia lay down next to her, propped up on one elbow. Her dark brown eyes were so entrancing, Ginny thought, as Olivia leaned in to press her perfect lips to Ginny’s mouth. Olivia’s lifted Ginny’s sleeveless blouse up and over her head. She leaned in and kissed Ginny’s nipples through her bralette. She reached her hand down past Ginny’s waistband and into her underwear, exploring. 

“Let’s take a shower,” Olivia breathed into Ginny’s ear.

“Sounds good,” Ginny murmured, feeling her heart beating between her legs.

In the white bathroom, turning pink from the setting sun, Olivia unbuttoned Ginny’s shorts, and slid her underwear down her legs. Then she stepped back and held her arms over her head, waiting for Ginny to undress her. Ginny pulled off Olivia’s faded rugby top, and reached around to undo her lace bra’s delicate golden clasp. 

The shower was big, about six feet by six feet with an enormous shower head directly in the middle that could be adjusted from a soft drizzle to a torrential downpour. The soap was in glass bottles, some dark brown apothecary style, and some elegant crystal. 

“It’s made by a potioneer in San Francisco for my specific body chemistry,” Olivia explained. “But it will still be a lot better than any regular soap for you.” She rubbed it between her hands to a creamy lather, and knelt down on the floor of the shower, rubbing Ginny’s legs. “Your legs are so long,” Olivia whispered. “I saw how long your legs were once on the cover of a Quidditch magazine. I bought the issue just to see if there were more pictures of you.” She worked up Ginny’s legs, higher and higher. 

Then they heard Liza’s voice drifting in from their adjoining bedroom, “It’s almost time for dinner, girls!”

Ginny turned red.

“Do they know?” she asked.

“Oh, probably,” Olivia said, unconcerned. “Let’s get a move on I guess, I don’t want her coming in here.” 

In the bedroom, both girls wrapped in fluffy towels, Olivia turned to the closet. “What did you bring that’s more formal?”

Ginny pointed out her somewhat crumpled sundress.

“Hmm,” Olivia said. “Let’s try this.” 

She pulled out a long cream colored dress for Ginny to try on. It had a square neckline, revealing Ginny’s freckled collarbone, short capped sleeves, and a completely open back.

“What do you think?” Olivia asked.

“I like it,” Ginny said.

“You’re perfect in it,” Olivia said, kissing her again, on her shoulder. “Your skin is so soft. Don’t you love that soap? My uncle’s actually on the board of the company, so if you want the family discount, let me know.”

At dinner, Willard seemed more interested in getting to know their houseguest. Ginny wondered if someone had reminded him of her last name.

“So, your family is still close with Harry Potter and Hermione Granger? I hear you're staying with your brother this summer? And that would be Ron?” asked Willard. “Maybe we’ll meet him if we come up for the weekend sometime.”

“Actually it’s my brother Charlie,” said Ginny. 

“Ah,” said Willard, looking down at his dinner again.

“He’s a professor at Cambridge,” Ginny added, somewhat defensively.

“I imagine a lot of doors are open for you with the last name Weasley these days,” Willard said, smiling over his wine glass.

Ginny got the feeling that this was meant as a compliment, and tried to smile.

“So are you still close with Harry Potter?” asked Liza.

“I suppose so,” Ginny said.

“Can’t be as close as you used to be right?” Jacob asked, waggling his eyebrows as his sister. 

“Let’s stop pestering Ginny,” Olivia said firmly, stabbing her salad onto her fork. 

“Fine,” Jacob said with a roll of his eyes. "Is this a different vinaigrette recipe?” 

Ginny turned her attention to the meal that had magically appeared on their plates at the beginning of dinner. It was quite similar to what Olivia often made for lunch. Simply prepared lean meat, dark leafy green vegetables, even the nutty brown bread seemed to be the same recipe as Olivia used.

“Yes, Sparky found it online,” Liza said in response to Jacob’s question. “It’s perfect for summer, so light and just a hint of raspberry.”

“How is dear old Sparky--” began Jacob.

“Jacob,” Olivia interrupted.  “I’ve just remembered that Maude Green and Margaret de la Cruz are working with Ginny’s brother this summer. Do you remember them?”

“Oh, vaguely. Wasn’t Margaret that mousy little thing in your year.”

“Yes, that’s right. She was close with Delphinia Warbeck who’s apparently eloped with a Squib...”

-------

Sunday, July 9

“I got to talk to Neville on the phone for a bit today,” Luna said, as she and Rolf got ready for bed on Sunday night. “He said that all our plants at the flat are doing well.”

“Oh, good,” said Rolf. “Did he say anything about whether the heart-leaf tiger’s eye has flowered?”

“He sent me a picture of a bud,” Luna said, picking up her phone. “Do you want to see?”

“Yeah, duh,” said Rolf, crawling over the bed. “This is so cool. You should send it to my dad. He was so excited when he brought us that cutting.”

“And it was so sickly!” said Luna. “I really felt like he was setting us up to fail. But Neville was so much help with that. He also said that he’s got a deal to make another expansion pack of Dances & Detentions.”

“What’s this one going to be called?”

“He’s thinking ‘DUI’s and Driver’s Ed,’ so it’ll be about teen hijinks with cars.”

“Sounds fun,” said Rolf, settling into his side of the bed.

Luna felt that this conversation was going better than expected. Rolf and Luna had been in the living room when Ginny and Olivia swept by on Sunday morning to throw some things in an overnight bag for their San Diego trip. 

Rolf had spent most of the rest of the day sitting around staring out the window and scrolling on his phone, only perking up when Charlie invited him to go on a bike ride. 

“I was wondering what you’re up to in the evenings this week?” Luna asked.

“Oh,” Rolf said, picking up his phone from the bedside table. “Um, I’m not sure yet. I’ll probably want to see if there’s any work Charlie needs help with.”

“Well, remember, he’s trying to be better about working late because he doesn’t want everyone else to feel like they should be too.”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Maybe we could go see a movie? Or go to Bellingham or Seattle and explore a little?”

“Maybe,” Rolf said. “I think I’ll just want to make sure that we’re not missing out on anything on the island.”

---

Monday July 10

On Monday evening, Romilda announced it was time for Charlie to stop stalling and set up his phone. After dinner the three of them hunkered down at the breakfast nook and Luna and Romilda began explaining contact lists, apps, settings. 

“It’s like I’m talking to someone's old grandpa... maybe great-grandpa,” Romilda said, cradling her head in her hands when Charlie failed to understand the difference between text messages and emails.

When they had set it up to the extent that their patience allowed, Romilda cast an Impervius charm, with dramatic flair. Too dramatically as it turned out, and Charlie’s phone was so impervious that he couldn’t get the touch screen to work. 

“ Finite Incantatem, ” Romilda muttered, rather red in the face, while Persephone smirked from where she was preparing zucchini noodles for dinner.

“This is great, Romilda,” said Charlie looking at his phone in a satisfied manner. “Now I’ll be able to do a disillusionment charm and fly low over the water to some of the GPS locations and see if dragons that aren’t close to shore are where the trackers say they are.”

“That sounds kind of fun,” said Romilda. “And then if we didn’t see the dragons from the air we could do our Bubblehead charms and dive into the water to see what we could see. I’m a pretty good flier, just saying.”

“So am I,” said Persephone. “And I’ve got the Nimbus X which has a built-in invisibility toggle, so it would be perfect for the job. The idea about diving into the water seems a little reckless, but I was the reserve Seeker for the Ravenclaw team, so I could do it safely..”

“Um,” Charlie said, looking uncomfortable. “I’ll give it a whirl and see how feasible it is and then maybe we could all, uh, go together.”

Persephone and Romilda both looked annoyed and Persephone continued spiralizing zucchini with unneeded vigor.

“Zoodles,” Romilda said to Luna later, in Luna’s room. “That bitch.”

“There’s nothing wrong with zucchini noodles,” said Luna placatingly.

Tuesday July 11

By Tuesday afternoon, Ginny and Olivia had not yet returned from their weekend trip. Charlie and the students were all gathered around in the living room, poring over the map and the new data from the trackers. The majority of the dragons were where they expected, swimming around the bays and straits of the San Juan Islands. Charlie had gone on his broom to confirm their locations that morning, leaving the house at five in the morning, very quietly, while Persephone and Romilda slept peacefully upstairs. 

However, the same dragons as before were still turning up in strange locations. Number Twelve who had been down near California, was now up by Juneau. Fourteen, who was last tracked in the middle of the Pacific Ocean now seemed to be in a lake near Portland, Oregon. And to make matters more confusing, two more dragons now seemed to have similar problems with their tracking data. Eight was supposedly off the coast of British Columbia and Sixteen was nowhere to be seen at all. Extra strange considering their trackers were designed to be pretty much indestructible, so even if one of their dragons was eaten by a whale, the tracker would survive the digestive tract.

Luna was taking lots of notes on a pad of waxed paper that was designed to go underwater, wanting to share this information with the Merpeople.

“Folks, I hate to do this, since I know we all need our sleep,” said Charlie. “But I think it’s time we set up a 72 hour watch to see what’s going on with the dragons. I’ll make a sign-up sheet for eight hour shifts. When you think about your schedule, consider if you’re an early bird or a night owl. Do you think we can make it work to begin tomorrow?”

Once the sign-out list was printed there was much jostling as they all figured out which days they were available and if anyone wanted to double up to have company. Terry and Sam signed up for a shift together. Persephone and Rolf were both angling to work with Charlie, and were having a tense conversation where they both were politely trying to get their way. While they were negotiating, Romilda and Luna agreed to work together, as did Maude and Margaret. 

---

Tuesday July 11

Ginny finally got an email from Harry. It was a notification on her screen when she woke up on Tuesday morning, still at Olivia’s parents' house. Since it was 8 o’clock, Olivia was already out of the bed. 

Hi Ginny,

Auror Academy is going well. Ron and Hermione came up to visit for the weekend and tour around Edinburgh. 

Hermione said I should write to you and work on communicating about our relationship. Is that what you want? I don’t know what it is you want. 

Say hi to Charlie and Luna for me.

Best, 

Harry

Swiping away anxiously from that, she opened her chat with Fleur, Angelina and Hermione. Fleur had sent her a link to a Magical gossip website with the headline “Ginny Weasley throws over Boy Who Lived for American heiress” with a picture of Ginny lounging on the deck of the Steward’s boat with Jacob and Olivia.

Ginny turned off her phone screen and rolled over, wishing she were still asleep. A problem she hadn’t foreseen with visiting the Pacific Time Zone was seeing stressful messages on her phone right when she woke up, sent by people who had been up for hours. 

“Best, Harry.” What the hell was she meant to do with that? 

Ginny got up and headed to the bathroom. She had just gotten out her toothbrush when she started hearing Olivia’s parents arguing through the walls.

“I just don’t see why we can’t call him up and see what the hold up is--- We’ve been banking with them for generations.”

“It doesn’t work like that, Liza!”

Ginny turned on the tap and let it run while she brushed, to drown out the noise.

Olivia came in with two big green smoothies. Her caramelly hair was in a tight ponytail and she was wearing head-to-toe athleisure. 

“Morning, baby,” she said, setting down the smoothies on the counter and kissing Ginny’s nose. “I know you grew up in England, but we don’t let the water run like this in California.” She turned off the tap. The voices had stopped.

“Oh, yeah! Um, sorry. How’s your morning going?” Ginny asked.

“Yoga with Mom, then a run with Jacob and Willard. I’m off to the shower and I could use some company..”

Chapter Text

July 13, Thursday 

It was just after midnight and Luna was reading in the shelter the team had set up near the dragons’ nesting spot. Under the pop-up canopy there was a lantern, surrounded by drifting moths, a collapsible metal table, a few camp chairs, an enchanted Playmate cooler that Charlie had stocked with sparkling water, and a hammock. Romilda had fallen asleep in the hammock and was snoring a little. It was their shift watching the dragons to find out what was going on with the tracking data. Being something of a night owl, and not the least afraid of the dark, Luna had signed up for one of the later shifts. Romilda had pouted, and when Luna suggested she pair up with someone else or work on her own, she had grudgingly signed her name beside Luna’s. Luna was reading the sequel to Chaste Pioneers , Pious Housewives . She kept one ear perked up to hear if any of the detection charms she had placed around the perimeter of the island were being tripped.  

The hair on her arms stood on end and a little buzz alerted her to someone’s presence in the immediate area. Romilda quietly muttered in her sleep. Luna turned off the lantern and tapped her wand at her temple, doing a nonverbal charm to enhance her night vision, before Disillusioning herself and then Romilda with a gentle tap on her toe. 

Luna had always been a dab hand at Disillusionment charms, nearly invisible on her very first try and she had only gotten better since. Back in the DA, Hermione had said that the only person who could do a better Disillusionment charm than Luna was probably Dumbledore, who had famously been able to turn completely invisible. Technically, the only way to be completely invisible was with Harry’s cloak, of course. 

And yet, Hermione had shown Luna a paper from when Dumbledore had cooperated with a group of researchers to see if they could detect him visually by any means with his charm, and they could not. Luna was not that good, but she had gotten even better by practicing constantly during the war and now no one could ever spot her, even in bright daylight knowing exactly where she was. 

In the darkness, she crept over the slippery rocks in her outdoorsy sandals. There was a blonde man, maybe in his mid thirties, crouching right over one of the dragon nests, reaching in --

Luna hurried closer, and when she was about ten feet away she unveiled herself. 

“Just what do you think you're doing?” she demanded.

The man jumped, and placed a hand to his chest.

Up close the man looked somewhat familiar, but she couldn’t put a finger on where she had seen him before.

“Out for a night walk,” he said, one hand held indignantly over his heart. “Who the fuck are you?”

“I’m with a group of students working with an endangered species,” Luna said. “This is sensitive nesting grounds and I suggest you stay away from it. What’s your name?”

“Dean Carrigan,” he said with the air of a man who was saying the first name who came into his head. “Well, if this is such a special and important area, I suppose I better get going.”

And with that he walked away, vanishing into the dark.

-----

Friday - Saturday July 14-15

The rest of the watch went by without further incident. Charlie and Luna searched the name Dean Carrigan in several databases and when that revealed nothing they sent a letter to Kingsley Shacklebolt, who was the head of the Auror office, to see what he might be able to dig up. 

Then Charlie got an owl that Aunt Florence wanted to come up for a day or two. He and Ginny started sweeping up the bedroom she had insisted be reserved for her. Luna went and gathered bouquets of wildflowers for her dresser and the dining table; Romilda came with her and made unhelpful suggestions about flower arranging. 

“Romilda, this is covered in bugs!” Luna said. Romilda had just tried to stuff a goldenrod that was crawling with ants in their milk bottle as they wandered through the fields by the lighthouse.

“Is that a problem?” Romilda said. “I thought it would add some texture to the arrangement.”

Olivia had replied to Ginny’s invitation that she was off on one of her solo boat excursions, so she wouldn’t be coming, but was sad to miss dear old Flo.

Luna set to work making dinner, with Ginny and Charlie working as her sous chefs. Persephone poked her head in and, seeing Charlie, tied on an apron. They all worked together on cedar-planked salmon, with dill and horseradish cream and a cold yogurty green goddess salad. Rolf made cheddar and chive biscuits and golden crunchy roasted cauliflower. Maude, inspired by Rolf’s botanical syrups, used rose and dandelion to make a big pitcher of lemonade. 

Luna felt like the only time she’d been seeing Rolf recently was making dinner for the house. And usually there were a bunch of other people around, so they didn’t get any quality time. 

Tonight Rolf and Charlie were talking excitedly about bike camping, which Charlie had just learned about and he was now thinking about a rig he could make for broom camping. 

“--could just do an undetectable expansion charm on your backpack--”

“--but doesn’t this sketch look so wicked--”

Terry and Sam set the long rickety table with a lace tablecloth they found in the hall closet and tried to find china that matched and wasn’t too chipped. Ginny set the food under stasis charms to keep it fresh for dinner and waited for Aunt Florence to arrive by Floo. 

Everyone had freshly scrubbed faces and had gotten their “semi-formal outfit” that had been on the packing list out from the bottom of their duffel bag. 

Charlie had reminded them the day before, “Three months room and board! That’s the money she’s saved us all. Let’s act grateful! She’s our patroness, I guess.”

Terry had spent fifteen minutes looking up a charm to help Sam get some dog hair off his slacks. “Why is Newton’s hair all over your pants? You haven’t seen him in a month!”

"Just use a lint roller!" Romilda said. "Wizards are always outsmarting themselves."

They all waited in the living room, some sitting in the wicker furniture that was grouped around the fireplace, some leaning against the faded wallpaper.

“Where did you say Olivia was this weekend?” Sam asked.

“Off sailing,” said Ginny, smiling.

“All by herself again?” asked Sam.

“Yes, she says that she likes to be alone with the sea. She’s got all this poetry she likes to read while she’s sailing alone, and she uses the stars to navigate.”

“She told me that she does sun salutations every morning when she’s on the boat,” said Persephone. 

“Doesn’t she have to, like, steer the boat or whatever?” said Romilda. “How’s she doing all this while pulling on all the little ropes?”

Sam seemed to ponder this, while Ginny merely looked annoyed.

Then there was a burst of green flames and Great Aunt Florence was there. She was a tall and imposing woman, despite her age, with white hair gathered in a bun at the nape of her neck. Her old-fashioned and expensive looking leather luggage flew out of the fireplace in a pile beside her. She was wearing long lace-edged rose Wizarding robes with leaves and flowers embroidered all over. 

“Hello, Charlie dear,” she said, stepping out of the flames and kissing him on the cheek. “And this must be little Ginevra, charming, charming. I don’t think I’ve seen you since before you went to Hogwarts.”

Charlie introduced the other students who were gathered in the living room.

“Well, I’m certainly not going to remember all of these names at my age,” she said, “but pleased to meet all of you all the same.”

Persephone, who had looked up an ironing charm for the occasion, looked affronted.

Florence marched around the house, looking things over with a critical eye, pulling out a monocle to inspect the furniture, waving her wand at the dusty mantlepiece which immediately became spotless, before Charlie led the way into the dining room.

“Don’t they teach you young things how to do cooling charms anymore?” Aunt Florence said, fanning herself as she stepped through the doorway. “I thought about getting one of those fancy new air conditioning charms set on this house, but it’s just not worth the expense when I’m rarely up here, especially since temporary ones are so simple.”  She took out her long oak wand and with a complicated whirl, the temperature dropped about ten degrees.

Charlie held out her chair for her as the rest of the group filed in, sitting nervously in their spots. 

“So what kind of work is my house sheltering this year?” Aunt Florence said, turning to Charlie.

Charlie launched into the explanation of the work, reminding Aunt Florence what he had done in years prior and explaining how this summer’s work would build on it. Florence nodded along sagely. Ginny had the impression that as long as Charlie sounded knowledgeable and impressive, Florence would be satisfied, regardless of whether she understood what he was working on.

After that Florence demanded to be reminded of her fellow diners’ names and, recognizing surnames, asked after their relatives. At Luna, she rolled her eyes and let out a short laugh remembering Xenophilius. When she turned her attention to Rolf, she demanded to know what research his family was working on and told Rolf to write to them at once and remind them to invite her over to dinner soon. 

“I believe we have a mutual friend,” Ginny ventured. “Your neighbor Olivia Steward is often over here, and we’re all friends.”

“That’s a bold characterization,” Romilda muttered to Luna.

“Never heard of her in my life,” Aunt Florence said, fanning herself some more and sipping her wine. “Steward you say? She wouldn’t be one of those uppity Ivermorny Stewards would she? Americans,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “No offense, of course to any of you delightful young people who might be Americans, and I do love my adopted country” she said with a wave to the gathered students. “You have to understand, from a British perspective... we’ve had our institutions for hundreds, nay thousands of years, all this pomp and circumstance around your little school... Well, to us it’s a bit silly.”

This declaration was met with a general silence, with some students pursing their lips and exchanging glances or nodding appeasingly.

“Olivia lives in that little red house on the bluff, about a mile west of here,” Ginny persisted. “She’s been over to visit with you before.”

Aunt Florence forked up a big bite of salmon. “I’ve met the current Steward patriarch a number of times. A very unctuous little man. I didn’t care for him at all. But no, I don’t believe I’ve met any of his children. I’m very rarely on the island after all. That’s why I leant the house to your brother.” 

---

Sunday July 16

Molly Weasley insisted on a Floo call after Florence left to find out how things went.

“I remember when I had first started dating your dad and went to my first Weasley party. I thought she was his most terrifying aunt,” Molly said. “Is she still an old firecracker? I haven’t seen her in about ten years myself. Or did she come to Bill and Fleur’s wedding? I don’t remember.”

“No, I think she didn’t want to travel to England with all the stuff going on with You-Know-Who,” said Charlie.

“She was fine,” Ginny said. “I think her memory might be going though. I have a friend on the island who knows Aunt Florence pretty well, but when I brought up her name, Aunt Florence said she didn’t remember her.”

Arthur, who had evidently been eavesdropping, poked his face in beside Molly’s. 

“I don’t think so, Ginny,” he said. “I’ve seen her in the last two years or so at a few Weasley family get-togethers and she seemed fine to me. And her kids -- my cousins -- say she’s still sharp as a tack. And I was just asking after her when I saw my cousin Prudence at Gringotts last Saturday.”

“What’s going on with you and Harry, dear?” Molly asked. “Ron and Hermione brought him ‘round for dinner the other night and he didn’t look himself. So pale and I thought he looked rather skinny--”

“You always think that, Mum,” said Charlie, laughing. “No one’s ever fat enough for you.”

“Well, that’s not true at all!” 

---

Dear Charlie, Luna et al,

Nothing turned up in our criminal databases for the name Dean Carrigan. As you all pointed out in your letter, it was likely a fake name. I’ve attached a pensieve vial so if Luna wants to send me her memory of his face we might be able to match it to someone. We’ve been collaborating with American law enforcement, so we should be able to run the memory against their database as well.

Hope you’re enjoying your summer besides all this,

Kingsley.

---

Hello Kingsley,

Thanks for your help with this! Let us know if the memory turns up anything.

Love from, 

Luna

---

Saturday July 22

The next weekend Maude and Margaret were planning to attend a wedding in San Francisco. Their friend who was getting married was another Ilvermorny alum, a girl named Natalie Farthington. Margaret and Maude asked Romilda and Luna if they’d like to come to San Francisco and sight-see with them and entertain themselves while Margaret and Maude attended the wedding. 

Early on Saturday morning, the four of them Flooed directly from Florence’s house to the San Francisco Floo and Portkey Station, an old marble bank-like building in San Francisco’s Wizarding District. This Magical-only area, hidden from Muggle eyes, was the oldest such district on the West Coast of the US or Canada. 

Natalie’s family lived in the heart of the W.D. in a beautifully up-kept painted lady style row house. Maude, who was in the wedding party and a friend of the family, went there directly, while the other witches made their way to their hotel, just a block away from the Station. 

After they had dropped their bags, Romilda, Luna and Margaret set out to do some Muggle sight-seeing, going to the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman’s Wharf, and a few museums, Apparating out of restrooms, alleyways and an unlocked closet to get from place to place. 

“I know it’s more immersive to travel without Magic, but I didn’t bring my walking shoes,” said Romilda, as the three of them tried to subtly exit a wheelchair accessible bathroom stall at the Asian Art Museum, much to the consternation of several old ladies.

“What?” Margaret muttered as they left the bathroom to find the ticket line. “Do they really think that we were having group sex in the bathroom of an art museum at two in the afternoon?”

“We’re such do-gooders, buying tickets for all these places,” said Romilda. “It’d be so easy to just Apparate to hidden spots further inside the museum.”

“Yeah,” said Margaret. She opened her phone screen. “Our righteousness aside, the only plausible Apparition site I saw when I was looking at pictures of this museum was this bathroom stall..”

“Why had someone posted a picture of the inside of the bathroom?” Romilda demanded.

Margaret frowned at her phone screen. “It was posted with a Google review. They said, ‘good museum and even better bathroom. I suffer from irritable bowel syndrome and it was greatly appreciated.’”

“Lucky us,” said Romilda. 

Because the likelihood of splinching was much higher if you didn’t know your destination well, the witches had been hunching over phone screens and looking at street views on Google maps before Apparating to each destination. There were even some wizarding blogs with pictures and panoramic views of convenient Apparition spots in tourist destinations to help people visualize the spot they were trying to get to.  

As they waited in line, Luna remarked, “I know a girl who did her Master’s thesis on how Magical travel has changed since street view and search engines turned up. These intersections of Muggle technology and Magic are so interesting. It used to be so difficult to visualize a place you’d never been to before, but now we can see a 360 degree view of any street address in California, practically.”

Margaret wanted to Apparate all the way to Carmel-by-the-sea for lunch, but Romilda begged off.

“I can barely apparate thirty miles, Margaret. Do you want to be gathering up my fingers after I splinch myself?”

So they contented themselves with clam chowder in bread bowls before they returned to the Wizarding District to check out the shops, both new and gleaming, and old and historical. They wandered into a shop with the name: -   H. Fleischmann & Bartleby Potioneers est. 1850 - carefully lettered on the door.

“That sounds so familiar,” said Romilda. “I think I might follow this business on Instagram or something.”

Tarnished brass bells tinkled as Luna pushed open the door. Inside the store was dim and cool, with silvery old spotted mirrors on the walls and brown, blue, and green apothecary bottles in all shapes and sizes on the old dark wooden shelves.  A few other shoppers milled about, but Luna couldn’t spot a shopkeeper. The mirrors made the labyrinthine aisles very confusing, and Luna bonked into her own reflection as she tried to go around a corner. 

Along the wooden counter near the register, she gazed at bulbous glass potioneering equipment that looked custom-made, liquid dripping slowly through the different chambers. 

There were slabs of pearly white soap stacked in towers; there were eyedroppers and vials filled with opalescent potions that shimmered and reflected the light as Luna swirled them. Luna read the label, “Instant Scar Removal - Not Guaranteed to Work on Spell Damage.” Romilda was examining a glass jar of powder that read “Cataract Away - Clear Vision in Seconds.” Moving around the aisle, Luna picked up a small metal tube of Acne Antidote.

“That’s our best seller in the 14 to 40 age group,” said a man about Luna’s age who had popped up beside her. “Our online stock is always sold out minutes after we post about it. We’re thinking about contracting with a larger potioneer to produce it in bulk.”

This wizard was about Luna’s height, with chestnut hair, wide brown eyes, and flawless tan skin. His sudden appearance and glowing good health were rather startling, and Luna dropped the tube.

The man bent with easy grace and handed it back to Luna. 

“Wow, it must be really something,” Luna said. 

The man whipped an antique silver hand mirror from his back pocket, handing it to Luna. 

“Watch this,” he said, tapping a little of the ointment onto his pinky and then dabbing it at a tiny red spot near Luna’s temple. It seemed to shrink right back into her skin, making a quiet ‘ploink’ sound as it went, leaving her forehead spotless. 

Luna ran her finger over the spot, feeling the smooth skin. “Wow.”

“While this is our best-selling stand alone product, the backbone of our business is our custom-made shower gels, shampoos and soaps. We analyze your skin and hair to make the best compound for you that magic can create. You should have seen me before I started working here. My skin was dull, my hair was flat. If you’re interested, just let me know. We’ll swab your skin and take a lock of hair, then together we choose your custom scent and once it’s all whipped up, we mail the potion in about a week.”

Luna was pondering this when Margaret walked around the corner.

“Margaret de la Cruz!” the young man exclaimed. “I haven’t seen you in ages.”

Margaret looked momentarily bewildered before a faint light of recognition turned on. “Is that Daniel Ward? What a surprise!”

“Are you in town for Natalie’s wedding?”

“Yes, actually. Are you going too?”

The two schoolmates caught up for a little while. Margaret told him a little about their summer on the island, he told Margaret, rather eagerly, about working in the store (“It’s the most prestigious potion store in California, and arguably the whole Western United States, according to my old professor! The only thing is that everyone I know is constantly asking for discount codes...”)

Romilda, convinced by a pamphlet printed on heavy, luxurious cardstock, decided she did want to try the custom soap set which included body wash, face wash, face moisturizer, shampoo and conditioner and lotion. While she was sorting this out with Daniel, smelling little bottles of herbal extracts, Luna and Margaret looked through a section of potions in little tincture bottles. There was one for sleeping, one for wakefulness, one for skin redness, gas, sore muscles, headache, nausea, dizziness. 

“I almost didn’t recognize him,” said Margaret in an undertone. 

“The shop worker?”

“Yeah, Daniel. He was in my year at Ilvermorny, but he really looks so different. I guess these products must do something. He looks shockingly better than in high school. Maude’s not going to believe this.”

As they were leaving the store, Daniel walking them out, something caught Luna’s eye. It was a potion in a small, intricate crystal bottle, sitting alone on a shelf. The liquid was distorted through the different angles of glass, shining all the colors of the rainbow. Luna couldn’t tell if it was the color of the potion or a trick of the light through the intricate glass. In hand-written cursive, the sign beside it said, “H.F. & B.’s Love Potion No. 3.”  

“It’s not a real love potion, is it?” asked Luna.

“Ooh, don’t let me near that,” said Romilda. Luna rolled her eyes.

Daniel picked the bottle up carefully, twirling it in the light filtering in through the window. “Oh, it’s real alright.”

“What does it do?” asked Margaret.

“Well, ‘love’ is an ambiguous term,” Daniel said, warming up to what was clearly a well-trodden spiel. “Poets, philosophers, faith leaders, and many others have tried to define it for centuries, millenia really. What Love Potion Number Three can do is intensify feelings of attraction. It can cause obsessive thoughts, infatuation. It can make you long to be near someone. Like all love potions, it works much better when there is a natural inclination between the two parties.”

“And this is legal?” asked Romilda, dubious.

“The intended use of our love potion is for informed consensual consumption. We only recommend its use when it’s consumed by both, or all, members of a pre-existing relationship. For instance, in a marriage where the spouses have grown apart with age or the distractions of life, our potion will help rekindle their initial spark. This potion was the flagship of the store when it was developed just a few years after we opened in 1850. In our archive, I’ve read old mail orders for our potion for use between new spouses in arranged pureblood marriages, although it can only do so much. I’ve read thank you notes from some of the customers from back in the 1860s.”

“So, it’s illegal to use it nonconsensually?” clarified Margaret.

“Of course! Just like it would be illegal to trick or mislead someone into consuming any potion or drug. Should the aggrieved party press charges, the law is clear. But when we sell this potion, we read customers the disclaimers, and there hasn’t been an illegal case of someone using our potion in 35 years.”

“At least not a case that’s been brought before the law,” said Luna. “I can only assume lots of people don’t realize they’ve consumed it.”

“Well, if it’s not brought to law enforcement, how could we know?” asked Daniel, spreading his hands magnanimously. “But it is a little harder to abuse than other love potions. In research studies we’ve done in partnership with Stanford, it’s been shown to reignite and strengthen pathways in the brain. It works by reawakening past feelings of love and attraction, or intensifying current feelings. It doesn’t really work between complete strangers. If you see a really attractive person reading your favorite book on the bus, and you can’t help but wonder about them — something like that —slipping them the potion wouldn’t do any good, unless they had noticed you from afar as well. Then it might work. But more likely they’d just go home to their partner more in love than that morning.”

“So there’s no agent that you add, like your hair or something to make the drinker fall in love with one person in particular?” asked Romilda.

“No,” said Daniel. “Let’s say we have a potion-drinker. Let’s call him Dave. In research studies, if Dave had two girls he liked the same, and he drank the potion, he could end up more attracted to both of them in equal proportion. However, in our test cases, what has generally happened is if there is a girl he liked more or was more excited about or thinking about more often, that girl would supercede the other after he drank the potion.”

“These studies sound a little strange.”

“They were!” Daniel said enthusiastically. “We’ve been studying this potion for over a hundred years. The study I’m referencing is when we had married men meet young attractive models and spend a few hours with them. We instructed the models to be chatty and warm with the men. Then we studied the mens’ brains when they were shown pictures of their wives and of our models. Then we had them drink the love potion, spend another hour with the models, and then we studied their brain pathways again. 

In all cases, the love potion only heightened what the original scan had shown. So if a man’s brain had shown more attraction to his wife, that went up after the love potion and sort of overrode his attraction to the model. If the brain scan showed he was about equally attracted to both women, his attraction increased to both women, and if his brain showed more attraction to the model, that went up after the love potion, too. It’s harder to measure feelings of comfort, security and friendship that people look for in relationships though.”

“Why would anyone’s wife agree to them doing this?” asked Margaret.

“Well, I think there was a cash incentive. This was back in the ‘70s, so our ethical standards weren’t quite what they are today. Also, a one-time dose of the potion does wear off. The longer you take it, the more permanent the effects are. But for this study, the potion wore off in about seventy-two hours.”

“So, the love potion just magnifies existing feelings?” asked Romilda.

“Exactly, it works with existing pathways in the brain. Ones that might be a little old and disused, in some cases. That’s why the main users are older couples.” 

“Are there any side effects?” asked Luna.

“The most commonly reported side effect is being drowsy or sleeping longer or more often than normal. It’s really not a big problem for most people who use our potion, because the drinker more often than not just feels tired and cuddly a little earlier in the evening than normal. Our customers report drinking the potion with their partner and taking long naps together in each other’s arms.”

“Sounds nice,” said Luna.

---

Sunday July 23

The next day, Maude and Margaret went to Natalie Farthington’s wedding. It was to be a fancy affair, taking place in a famous Wizarding hotel with extensive grounds looking onto the bay. 

Margaret had pulled up the wedding registry for Romilda to snoop through while she got ready at their hotel, sitting at a vanity table with all her lotions and potions. Maude, who they hadn’t seen since the day before, was getting ready with the bridal party, posting champagne selfies on her story.

“Solid gold candlesticks?” Romilda demanded from where she was lying on the bed, scrolling through the list. Luna was lying beside her, reading her book and constantly being interrupted by Romilda poking her and saying, “look! Look what these rich people want!”

“Well,” said Margaret conspiratorially, as she dabbed on foundation, “according to Maude, she’s going to inherit a set of solid gold dishes and cutlery as a wedding gift.”

“What? That’s ridiculous,” said Romilda. “And sounds tacky.”

“I guess it’s a thing among purebloods to have these dish sets because they were supposedly a gift Nicolas Flamel used to make for his friends. So it shows some sort of connection to Wizarding history.”

“So what was the deal with that guy from yesterday? Daniel?” asked Romilda.

“I am so glad we bought some of that Acne Antidote,” Margaret said, carefully squeezing some out to touch to her nose. “Wow, it even clears up blackheads.” She met Romilda’s eye in the mirror. “Oh yeah, Daniel. That was strange. He was a weird little kid when I knew him, ugly, a bit creepy. Always muttering under his breath, usually seemed mad, refused to read anything but Guardians of Ga'hoole...  that kind of thing. I saw him pick his nose once when we were in eighth grade! He marginally improved in high school, Olivia’s group kind of took him under their wing.”

“Really?” asked Romilda. “Why?”

“I can only guess it’s because their families were friends. Daniel was never one of the most popular kids by any means, but Olivia’s influence had its value. Some girls even agreed to go to dances with him in high school, and I think Olivia helped him find better outfits. He still had some acne issues and his hair was a disaster. I barely recognized him. I think I’d seen somewhere, years ago, maybe on Facebook, that he’s working there, otherwise I don’t think I’d have put it together.”

“What’s wrong with reading Guardians of Ga’hoole? I never read them, but I’m sure they’re fine books?”

“He read them ... in a very sinister manner... you really had to be there. But he had a big crush on Maude for a few years in high school, so I wonder what she’ll think of this transformation.”

Chapter Text

Monday July 24

The next week Maude was looking very smirky. Margaret, Maude, Romilda and Luna had arrived back by Floo early Monday morning. While Margaret, Romilda and Luna seemed exhausted and were drooping over mugs of coffee, Maude had immediately unpacked her bags, taken a shower and was now prancing around the kitchen, even going so far as to lean over toward Ginny, who was cooking oatmeal, and boop her on the nose. 

“What’s gotten into her?” asked Ginny, after Maude bounced into the backyard with her coffee.

“She hit it off with some guy at the wedding,” said Romilda, tiredly. “I don’t know why I let you take me out dancing on a Sunday night, Luna.”

“It’s this guy who was totally obsessed with her at Ilvermorny,” said Margaret, rubbing her temples wearily. “Maude was way too cool for him at the time. She was sneaking out to go see local punk shows and wearing her sunglasses in class so she could take a nap without the professors noticing. He was this twerpy little guy with acne and a poindexter kind of thing going on.”

“Sounds appealing,” said Ginny.

“But,” Margaret continued. “We ran into him in SF and despite the fact that a weird personality probably lurks below, he looked good. Really good. He must have kept growing after we graduated because he’s tall, his skin glows and he’s hot.”

“He is,” Luna confirmed.

“And now Maude likes him,” said Margaret. “They got to dancing at the reception, and there was an open bar and let me tell you, some of the old witches and wizards were looking appalled at the kind of dancing that was happening. And though she had planned to stay with us, Maude didn’t come back to our hotel that night! If I could only go back in time to tell sixteen-year-old Maude that she would be dating Daniel Ward.”

“So you think they’re together?” asked Ginny. “Not just a fling?”

“It seems to be heading toward romance ,” said Romilda. “She told me he’s connected to the Floo network, so she’s been planning all kinds of date nights with him. I think he’s coming up tonight to watch a movie or something.”

---

Thursday July 27

On Thursday afternoon, Ginny put her running shorts and an old Gryffindor Quidditch t-shirt over her swimsuit. She was out the door, rolling her bike out of the barn, and on her way to meet up with Olivia at the lake when the van crunched up the driveway and a familiar voice called after her.

“Ginny! Ginny! Wait up!”

Ginny turned around in confusion. With a WHUMP Ginny found herself in the tight embrace of Hermione Granger, her curls getting in Ginny’s mouth that had dropped open in surprise.

“Hermione! What are you doing here?” she said, around the hair.

“I got away for the weekend! Charlie picked me up from the ferry. We wanted to surprise you! I’m so tired of studying for that damn bar exam and I wanted to see you.”

“I can’t believe you’re here,” Ginny said excitedly, squeezing her. “I’ve missed you so much! I was just on my way out the door to go meet up with Olivia, but I’ll text her and let her know I can’t make it. Unless you’d like to come with and meet her?”

“No, no, don’t cancel. I’d like to come along. Just let me go and put my bags down and throw on my bathing suit.”

On the way through the house, they ran into Luna, who was coming out of the living room where she had been poring over a Mermish grammar book.

“Hermione!” Luna said, dropping the big, heavy book with a dusty thump on the ground and throwing her arms around their friend. “How exciting to see you!”

After Hermione and Ginny explained their plans, Luna offered to let Hermione borrow her bike for the lake expedition.

“Should we expect all three of you for dinner?” Luna asked. “It should be ready around 7:30 or 8. I was thinking of making chili and cornbread...”

On the ride over, Hermione ranted about the bar exam and law school drama.

“Cormac McLaggen wrote to me to ask for advice on his application to law school,” Hermione mimed barfing, causing her to almost fall off her bike. “How has it been spending all this time with Charlie and Luna? What do you think of Rolf? You hadn’t met him before, right? I can’t believe that. I used to see them around all the time at Cambridge. They had this nice flat that was really central and they were always throwing dinner parties.”

“He seems nice,” said Ginny. “It’s strange. I haven’t seen Luna around in years, but it’s not awkward.  It’s almost like it’s been a month, not six years.”

“So did your dinner date work? Do Olivia and Luna like each other now?”

“No, not really. It’s strange since Olivia is so close with Rolf. Olivia is so nice though, I still think they just don’t understand each other...”

.

When they reached the lake and set their bikes among the tall reeds they spotted Olivia lying on a towel on the dock. She looked up as they approached, sunglasses rendering her expression inscrutable.

“Hi--” 

“You must be Hermione Granger,” said Olivia, standing up gracefully and offering her a hug. “I’ve heard so much about you. My name’s Olivia. I’ve been showing Ginny around the island this summer.”

“Nice to meet you,” Hermione said.

They all sat down on the dock and Ginny pulled a bag of corn chips and a jar of salsa out of her backpack. Olivia asked Hermione little questions about her journey over here, what she did for a living.

“This salsa is so good,” Hermione said.

“I think Luna made it,” Ginny said. “She made a pineapple one last week and a mango one a few days ago. I didn’t used to like savory pineapple dishes, but this is good.”

“British people don’t really understand Mexican food,” said Olivia. “No offense to Luna, of course,” she added, smiling. “This salsa is pretty good. It’s not authentic at all of course, but I’m from San Diego so I grew up eating Mexican food.”

“I suppose I wouldn’t really know,” Hermione said. 

“When I studied abroad in England, I had such a craving for Mexican food, but there’s really no good Latin American food, at least where I was.”

 “Where were you studying?” asked Hermione curiously.

“London.”

Hermione looked a bit dubious, “None at all--?”

Ginny cast around for a new subject. “Olivia runs her own organic strawberry farm. She’s also a potioneer.”

“How interesting,” said Hermione, dipping a chip. “What kinds of potions do you make?”

“They're all organic, and I often incorporate my strawberries or local plants. I make hangover cures, skin care potions for acne, blackheads, and I also make an anti-bloat potion and a potion to promote a healthy appetite.”

Hermione’s skeptical look had returned.

“Everyone loves your hangover cure,” said Ginny. “It tastes so good and, um, works so quickly. You should see Olivia’s potions room, Hermione, you’d love it. Her ingredient storage and copper cauldrons are so much more aesthetically pleasing than anything we had in Snape’s nasty dungeon, obviously.”

“Copper cauldrons?”  Hermione asked.

“Yes, I was the first of my friends to start using them, but now they’re really trendy,” said Olivia.

“I’ll show you the hangover potion when we’re back at home,” said Ginny. “I have a few bottles up in my room.”

Ginny and Hermione slid off the dock into the water, Hermione shrieking a bit about all the seaweed winding around her ankles. Olivia took pictures and videos from the dock before following them down the ladder into the water. 

That night, the group was once again spread out on picnic blankets in the yard. Olivia had seemed pleased to see Daniel when they got back to Aunt Florence’s -- this was the first time they had been at the house together -- and gave him a welcoming hug. Charlie had put out cheese and crackers and rolled out the bar cart for a cocktail hour. Hermione was shown off to the group by Ginny and Luna, who was hurrying in and out of the kitchen to go grab cilantro, and soon Hermione was chatting easily with everyone.

After all the food was ready, Ginny, Hermione, Luna, Rolf and Olivia sat spread out across a few blankets eating the black bean chili. Maude was with Daniel over near the tomato plants. Daniel was lying across the blanket with his head in her lap, while she fed him little bits of cornbread and stroked his hair. Ginny and Margaret exchanged a glance, and the latter rolled her eyes.

“This is just like what I was talking about earlier,” Olivia said to Ginny. Turning to Rolf, “the English don’t understand Mexican food, or Tex-Mex. This is a fine bean soup, but it’s not really chili. It’s not spicy at all and there’s no ground beef.”

“Maybe that’s because Luna was making it for a group,” said Hermione testily. “Maude is vegetarian and Charlie can’t handle spice.”

Olivia’s nostrils flared ever so slightly. 

“It’s actually my recipe,” Margaret declared from a nearby blanket where she was sitting with Romilda. “Given to me by my dear old abuelita, exactly how they made it in her hometown.”

Olivia, as if she couldn’t hear, continued talking to Rolf as if Margaret hadn’t said anything.

“Is it really a family recipe?” Hermione asked Margaret later as they washed dishes in the kitchen.

“No,” said Margaret. “I just was sick of Olivia going off about every topic as if she’s queen of the world and expert on all topics.”

“So you’re not a big Olivia fan, huh?”

“Not really,” Margaret said, scrubbing off a stubborn bit of melted cheese from a bowl. 

“She was telling me all about her copper cauldrons. Copper’s a really reactive material. It looks pretty, but to my knowledge, copper cauldrons are well-suited only for potions where there are no acidic ingredients. It’s a specialty cauldron to pull out every now and then, not everyday equipment.”

“Surprise, surprise,” said Margaret. “She just wants something that photographs well.” 

After dinner, Hermione conjured up a twin bed across the narrow room from Ginny’s. 

After the lights were out, Ginny said, “this reminds me of all the times you stayed in my room at the Burrow.”

“And at Grimmauld Place, and at the Tri-Wizard Tournament, and that time we went to visit Fleur in France, and at the Leaky Cauldron...”

“You would come to visit Ron, but we always spent probably more time together since you were always sharing a room with me.”

“And you always wanted to talk all night long! Thank Merlin it worked out that way, though. Harry and Ron could be so annoying. Plus, from what I’ve seen of Ronald’s room at the Burrow, I’m very glad I wasn’t staying in there.”

 “Yes, we both clearly hate Ron and Harry,” Ginny laughed, then sighed.

“So how are you feeling about Harry these days? Do you think you want to get back together?”

“I know he’s one of your best friends,” Ginny began.

“So are you, Ginny. I won’t tell him anything.”

“I feel so disloyal saying this, but I feel like I’m stuck with Harry. It feels like we were destined to be together in this way that I used to find romantic, but lately I find frustrating. He’s intertwined in my life in this unavoidable way. Lately things that never used to bother me make me want to pull my hair out. 

I think it’s self-sabotaging that he wants to be stressed out and in danger as an Auror for the rest of his life, when we all know how much joy he finds in teaching. And his job affects me too. That’s the whole reason he split up with me before you all went off to find the Horcruxes, so that Death Eaters wouldn’t target me. And now he wants to go after crazy, old Death Eaters with nothing to lose, and he thinks that wouldn’t put a future family at risk? And he’s so moody. I know I’m moody too, but I can’t deal with the storm cloud over his head all the time. And there will be whole days at a time where it feels like we don’t say anything of importance to each other, where it doesn't feel like we’ve even looked each other in the eye all day.”

Hermione was quiet for a moment, then asked, “I wonder when you felt happiest with Harry? When did you feel the most in love?”

Ginny thought back to a long spring day spread out on the lawn of the Black Lake, Harry’s hand resting on her leg. All of their friends around them, surrounded by parchment, iced pumpkin juice, packs of Exploding Snap. Luna’s cornflower blue eyes reflecting the clouds as she gazed up at the sky. Luna saying, to everybody and nobody in particular, “Sometimes I think I’m seeing one of those Beauxbatons carriages flying back to visit us again, but it’s just a cloud.” Ginny moving out from under Harry’s hand, to lay beside her, asking, “which cloud are you thinking of? Show me.”

Shaking herself out of the memory, she said, “I’m not sure.”.

“Ginny, you don’t need to convince me. You don’t need to be able to explain why. If you aren’t in love with him anymore, you don’t need some iron-clad reason. Maybe he’s just not what you need right now. I think sometimes people make a mistake in thinking a relationship that ends is a failed relationship. You loved Harry, but that doesn’t mean you have to stay with him forever. If your relationship brought you joy, if you feel that you’ve learned anything, you had a successful relationship. You can hold him in your heart. But that doesn’t mean you have to be with him until you die.”

---

Friday, July 28

The next morning, Hermione ran into Romilda in the kitchen. Ginny had left earlier to go run errands, and Hermione had stayed behind because she and Luna were planning to hang out. Romilda was wearing sunglasses, but a passer-by would only see the stems as she was facedown on the table in the kitchen nook. A cup of coffee steamed beside her head, all but forgotten.

Hermione bustled around, pouring herself coffee from the pot and getting out Luna’s homemade creamer that Ginny had told her about. This week it was vanilla lavender. Hermione had brought some groceries with her and started waving her wand around. Bananas, yogurt, orange juice, frozen peaches and blueberries started flying into the blender, which closed itself and started whirring loudly.

“Hermione, please,” Romilda moaned. “Surely a talented witch like you must know a way to have that blend more quietly. I have never had this bad of a headache in my life. I went out dancing with Terry and Sam last night in Capitol Hill.”

“Ah,” said Hermione.

Romilda raised her head slightly, so her chin was propped up on the table. Her face was rather green. “That’s the historically gay neighborhood in Seattle, though the locals tell me it’s mostly tech workers now. Those boys know how to party. They are exhausting. I’m never doing it again.”

“Ginny was just telling me she’s got a hangover potion in her room,” said Hermione, waving her wand and soon the little dark brown bottle was flying into her hand. 

Hermione unscrewed the bottle, and smelled it gingerly.

“Give me that,” said Romilda, grabbing it and downing it in one go.

“Did it work?” asked Hermione, curiously.

Romilda sat up and gave herself a little shake. The color was ebbing back into her face. “I think so. Thank Godric. I only woke up because I had to throw up and then I tried to take a shower and threw up in the shower too!”

“You threw up in the shower?” Hermione asked, distressed.

“Aw, come on, Hermione. You think I got to this big age without knowing a proper Scourgify?”

Hermione didn’t answer that. “So you really feel better now?” Hermione asked, pouring her smoothie into a glass.

“Did you not expect it to work?” asked Romilda, who was now drinking her coffee.

“Well, Olivia made it--”

“Say no more, I understand. Well, she finally did something right, because I actually do feel pretty much normal.”

“So you don’t like Olivia either,” Hermione commented.

Romilda rolled her eyes. “Not hardly. She’s manipulative, in my opinion. Everyone’s putty in her hands, but not me --”

“It seems like a lot of the girls don’t like her, actually,” said Hermione thoughtfully. “You, Margaret, Luna. I wonder if internalized misogyny combined with the socialization that teaches women to overvalue men’s opinions on our worthiness is making us distrustful of a young woman who’s conventionally attractive and confident?” 

“Hermione. I was just trying to gossip and now we’re self-reflecting? I mean, you’re probably on the money in some respects. If she wasn’t so hot and charismatic, she wouldn’t have this power over people. So are we jealous of her, or resentful of that power and what she chooses to do with it? She’s awful to Luna, but most of the group likes her fine because she keeps up a veneer of niceness and is meanest when she doesn’t think others are watching. She was telling Luna that Rolf’s mom wants him to marry Olivia and is constantly waving her high school romance with Rolf in Luna’s face. Why is she even going on about that if she’s supposed to be into Ginny now?”

“Good question,” said Hermione, sipping her smoothie.

“And I’ve been hanging out with Luna all summer. Way more time than I expected. I think Olivia is engineering ways to leave her out, while she goes off with Ginny and Rolf, and makes Luna feel unwelcome just subtly enough. But anyway,” she said with a sigh, drinking more coffee. “What are you up to these days, Hermione? Everyone’s been telling me you just finished law school.”

“Yes, and once I’ve passed the bar, I’m going to start with the law firm I’ve interned at. They’re called Banerjee, Mui, Prang and Wolpert. They’ve got an office in London, New York and Sydney so there’s some opportunity for travel if I were to consult on a case or the like. What about you? What’s next after this program?”

“Well I’ve got a few more credits until I get my Master’s and then we’ll see from there.”

“Do you think you’ll go into research? Policy-making?”

“Maybe,” said Romilda vaguely, sipping her coffee. “Got to graduate before I can really worry about all that, don’t I?” 

*

At the beach later, Hermione and Luna waded in the shallow water that had warmed up on the beach at low tide. 

“This is so much nicer than swimming to the Mervillage,” said Luna. 

Just then, a cold wave washed over their feet. “Ugh, I can only imagine,” said Hermione. “You couldn’t pay me to swim out there. It’s so funny to run into Romilda Vane here,” Hermione continued. “Obviously it was nice to have her in the DA and she came and fought with us, but I’m having trouble seeing her as more than the silly girl with the love potion.”

“Ah, Romilda,” said Luna with a smile. “I guess it’s all a matter of perspective. We’ve been hanging out a lot this summer. She’s ridiculous, and really nosey, but her heart’s in the right place. I’m glad she’s here. We’ve even done some weekend trips with some of the other girls in the program.”

“Huh, I would’ve thought you’d have your hands full with Rolf and Ginny,” said Hermione, as they walked out of the water and back to the sand.

“I definitely thought I would have been seeing more of Rolf,” said Luna. “I don’t know when I’ve seen him less, honestly. He’s busy all day long and we don’t even go to bed at the same time. I’m usually asleep by the time he’s done for the day.”

“I guess he’s busy with Charlie’s project?”

“And catching up with old friends from Ilvermorny.”

“Hmm,” said Hermione. “Well, what about you and your work? You’ve been going underwater all day with just your wand and that beat-up notebook?”

Luna pulled the notebook out of her tote bag, accidentally flicking a galleon onto the sand. Hermione reached down to pick it up for her and was handing it back when she looked closely at the coin. 

“Is this your old DA galleon?” she asked, referring to the enchanted coins she had created in her fifth year to communicate with the other members of Dumbledore’s Army.

Luna took it back with a smile. “Yes,” she said fondly. “It’s my good luck charm.”

“I actually keep mine with me too,” said Hermione. “It’s in a separate zipper in my wallet so I don’t get it mixed up with any regular money. I don’t want to get in trouble for trying to buy something with a counterfeit galleon, especially since I’m meant to become a barrister.”

The two friends walked along the beach for a few moments, before Luna looked down again at the notebook in her hand. “The paper’s waxed and then I added an Impervius charm to the paper so that’s how it’s not gotten too wet, but it has been getting kind of moldy. Is all black mold bad or just a specific kind?”

“Just the one type, I thought,” said Hermione, peering at the notebook in question. 

“And black mold’s really just bad if it’s in your house, I think. Neville’s new flat is so moldy.”

“Ugh,” said Hermione. “Well, I don’t know any good mold-abatement charms off the top of my head, but maybe I can find a way to help you carry other things with you.”

When they got back to the house, they hopped into the van and went to the outdoor recreation store. Hermione bought Luna a small roll-top dry bag, with a waist strap. In the passenger’s seat, Hermione added an undetectable Extension charm to the bag.

“There, now you’ll be able to bring a snack with you.”

“I guess something I don’t mind eating wet,” Luna said. “Not popcorn.”

“Soup is wet, but soup would just float out and mix into the water, I expect,” said Hermione.

“Maybe grapes or something.”

“I’ve added a security charm so that only you can see and access the full contents of the bag. If anyone else opens it they’ll see a pack of gum, a little Muggle money and an old crumpled tissue. It also came with some different straps so you could wrap it around your wrist or leg or cross-body or whatever.”

“Ooh, I might want some gum.”

“You’ll have to get your own. This is just what other people can see. It’s not an illusion, so if someone does take the gum or tissue for some reason, it would be gone. If you wanted another decoy item you’d need to get someone else to put it in, because only other people will be able to see and access this stuff.”

“Why did you have to put an old tissue in it?” Luna asked, wrinkling her nose.

“I’m trying to go for realism,” said Hermione. “Plus the gum and tissue was what I had in my purse right now.”

Chapter Text

Monday, July 31

Texts were waking Ginny up again.

Ron: HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATEEEEEEE

Ron: WHERE WE HEADED TONIGHT BROTHER???

Hermione: I’m still jet-lagged, so I might not be able to stay out too late tonight, plus I need to get some studying in, but yes happy birthday, Harry!

Tuesday August 1 

Luna had taken her bike on the ferry over to Anacortes to shop and get some work done. She had spent several contented hours working in a small, plant-filled café that reminded her of the one in her old dorm at Cambridge. Time got away from her, and it was 6:30 when she headed over to the big supermarket which had a wide variety of dried heirloom beans and she filled several filmy plastic bags. She sped down the hill to the ferry terminal and got there just in time to board the 8 pm ferry. 

Luna loved riding the ferry; she loved working on the jigsaw puzzles on the tables, standing on the deck and getting really cold in the wind, watching for whales and porpoises. She loved the dingy galley and the old coffee machine, she loved looking at the historical photographs and plaques hung up on display. She especially liked the people-watching.

The sun was setting into the water as they crossed, with low misty clouds and the sails of passing boats turning pink in the waning light.

When she wheeled her bike off in Friday Harbor, the sun had fully set and it was dark. She walked her bike through the alleyway to the big ring road. She saw the flick of a lighter as she passed a figure leaning against the brick. As she passed, the glow of the lit cigarette cast a familiar face into view, but where had Luna seen him before? She glanced back, and saw the man was leering at her. A sudden shock of realization: it was the blonde man she had seen walking on the beach. The supposed Dean Carrigan. She hopped on the bike and rode away.

At home, Charlie told her an owl had arrived from Kingsley.

---

Luna and Charlie,

 

We were able to analyze the face in the memory you sent us and run it through a few law enforcement databases. We’ve got a couple of arrests on file. Petty crime stuff: pickpocketing, shoplifting, a few misdemeanor curses against other wizards. Name seems to be Zachary Wheeler. Employed by the Washington State Department of Transportation working as a deckhand on ferries for the last year and a half. Doesn’t seem like a serious threat, but worth noting. I’ve sent you back the vial, as our practice is that we don’t keep any memories on file unless they’re part of a criminal investigation.

 

The San Juan Country Magical Law Enforcement captain is a guy named Darren Hoggweather. I’m including his contact information here. If you have any further problems with this guy, get in touch with Hoggweather.

 

Take care,

Kingsley

---

In bed, Luna and Rolf were both reading scientific articles on their tablets. Rolf yawned and stretched, setting his tablet on the bedside table.

“G’night,” he said, kissing her on the cheek.

“Wait just a moment,” said Luna, shutting off the screen and putting her tablet aside. “I’ve been meaning to ask you if you’d like to go up to Vancouver one of these upcoming weekends. We could stay overnight or we could do a day trip.”

“Luna, I don’t know...”

“If we just went up for the day, we could leave here at like nine and be back way before we’d normally go to bed. If we wanted to, we could even come back for dinner. And if we Apparated, well, then it’d be even easier.”

“Babe, I’m so busy with this research and it feels weird to break away from the group too often.”

“But--”

“I thought you wanted me to get to know all your friends from Hogwarts, so I’ve been trying to do that when I have free time. Plus, Olivia wants some advice about this potion she’s working on.”

Luna felt her usually placid demeanor shifting. “I’m happy that you like some of the people I know from Hogwarts, but it’s not as if you being their friend is my biggest priority. The only Hogwarts person here I was close with was Ginny. I mean, I like Terry and I’ve been spending a lot of time with Romilda lately, but it’s not as if I had any particular desire for you to be their friend.”

“Don’t get mad at me,” said Rolf, holding his hands out in front of him as though in surrender.

“I’m not mad at you,” said Luna. “I just thought you were putting words in my mouth.”

Rolf didn’t respond.

“Maybe if we looked a few weeks out,” Luna said, getting her phone from where it was charging on the bedside table.

“I just don’t think I can be away too long, and I don’t know if it makes sense to do a side trip to Vancouver for me this time. But I’m not saying you can’t. Maybe you should ask Romilda or Margaret or Maude or somebody?”

“Maybe,” said Luna. She reached over to turn off the light and lay awake for a long time that night, listening to Rolf’s deep, even breathing as he slept.

----

Thursday August 3

A little after breakfast, Luna and Romilda used the living room fireplace to get to the Seattle Floo and Portkey Station, and from there took the public portkey to Boston. They met up with Jade at the restaurant of the Botanical Garden of Magical Plants of New England, in the Wizarding District of Boston, just a five minute walk from the station. Luna recognized Jade from the Instagram account Romilda had shown her. Jade was just as pretty as Olivia, but in a more understated way. Where Olivia drew every eye immediately, Jade’s presence was quieter. She was tall and thin, like all Olivia’s friends. She was Black with dark springing curls straight out of a shampoo commercial.   

They all sat together outside under the shade of an umbrella, surrounded by rose bushes and other plants with a more distinctly Magical aura, ones that moved out of sync with the summer breeze. Jade, who knew the restaurant well, ordered them a cornmeal and blueberry cake to share and black iced tea mixed with peach juice and juicy, sticky peach slices served on the side. 

“It’s so kind of you to meet us,” Luna said.

“You came all the way from San Juan Island,” Jade said, with a dimpled smile. “I just live a two minute walk from here, so it’s not a big imposition. You said on Insta that you wanted to talk about Olivia.”

“Do you still follow her online?” asked Romilda.

“After you reached out, I took a look at what she’s been up to,” Jade said, looking at her slice of cake as she poked it with her fork. “You two said you’re friends with Ginny Weasley, right? I think I remember your face from the news after the Battle of Hogwarts,” she said to Luna. “And maybe some documentaries about the downfall of Voldemort?”

“Luna’s also in the Magical tabloids whenever they can catch her, but all the old blah blah blah about Voldemort aside,” said Romilda, “what we’re wondering about is how did things go down with you and Olivia? We don’t trust her and the Sneakoscope I ordered is going off non-stop when she stops by our house.”

“And your Rolf’s girlfriend, too, right?” Jade said to Luna, not seeming to hear Romilda. “Maybe that’s why you look so familiar, because he sometimes posts pictures of you two together.”

“Yes,” said Luna, somewhat sadly. “I wouldn’t normally come all the way across the country to bug somebody, but I’m not sure what to make of his relationship with Olivia. We’ve been together since freshman year of college, but we’ve never been so distant.”

Jade sighed and gave Luna a small smile, “That’s something Rolf and I had in common. We’ve both been under Olivia’s spell. Do you guys just want to hear the whole story of me and Olivia?”

“Yes, please,” Romilda said.

Jade took a long sip of iced tea. 

“My first few years at Ilvermorny I wasn’t friends with her yet. My parents weren’t part of the elite wizarding set, like Olivia and her friends. My mom’s a witch and she came to the US as an international student from Nigeria. She grew up pretty well off, but all of her Magical connections are in Lagos. She met my dad, who’s a Muggle, in college at Columbia, because Columbia has a Muggle-Magical integrated program. They met in the engineering department; they had a lot of classes together. So neither of them had any kind of legacy at Ilvermorny and they had barely even heard of it before my older sister started going there.

So the first few years I was at Ilvermorny I kept to myself with a few friends who were also the quiet, sheltered types whose parents insisted that they get all A’s. But then when I was fourteen, my braces came off, I grew five inches in one year, and I figured out my personal style a little. 

Suddenly everyone was noticing me, Olivia included. Looking back, I think she wanted to collect me, sort of. I’m Black, my dad’s family is Jewish, we visit Nigeria every now and then. My sister and I played in the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. I think she felt like I made her seem more interesting or cultured. 

Junior year I was visiting the French alps with her over winter break and she didn’t invite Rolf. We took a Portkey with her mom and brother for a few days. I had a huge crush on her ever since she started paying attention to me. She’s one of those people who when she talks to you, it’s like the sun shining down on a cloudy winter day. If you’re at a party with her, she can make it seem like she only sees you. If she wants to, anyway. We were out late one night, night skiing, and when we got back to the chalet she asked if I wanted to go into the hot tub, and then she told me she knew I liked her and that she had broken up with Rolf.

I wanted to get together with her, but she acted like it was a foregone conclusion. I knew I was gay, but I wasn’t necessarily ready for everyone to know. And besides, I had never been in a relationship before! I had only ever kissed like one person, in middle school, playing truth or dare. But it was my opportunity to be with her, and in the back of my mind there was a little voice that wondered that if I wasn’t ready, she might take it badly and not want to be my friend. I was only sixteen, I wasn’t able to articulate my feelings. And I mean, I wanted to be her girlfriend, don’t get me wrong.

And it wasn’t as big of a deal as I thought it would be when we came back and Olivia was holding my hand in the hallways and kissing me in the common room. Whatever Olivia did was immediately the cool thing to do. I think it made people feel like they were being really progressive and grown-up to hang out with us, especially me. Olivia would always be accepted no matter what, but I think being with the mysterious lesbian added a cultural cache for Olivia. 

I felt bad for Rolf. We were friends before all this happened. I went on a few of his backpacking club trips. I was jealous of him when he was with Olivia, but I felt really sorry for him when the tables turned. But Olivia still kept him around. It seemed like whenever he was in danger of finding a new group of friends that would preempt Olivia’s she would choose him over me a few times, make him feel like she still thought he was special. Orchestrate spin-the-bottle at a party and end up kissing him, that kind of thing.

I do think Olivia probably did love me, at different points. We were together on and off through college. Most academically-oriented or well-connected kids from Ilvermorny do the Magical program at Columbia. We have an easier acceptance rate than Muggle applicants since there’s only a few colleges that offer Magical programs. 

Olivia dropped out our junior year of college. We hadn’t been together in a few years when she invited me to go to San Juan Island and learn about Magically Enhanced Organic Farming through a non-degree program connected with Columbia and Stanford a few summers ago. 

My internship that summer was making me miserable, and it sounded so fun to be with her again, so off we went. I was thrilled to be with her again. When we had broken up in the past, it was always her leaving me, and then showing back up whenever she felt like it. My friends and my sister always thought she was treating me like a doormat. 

After we completed the summer term, her parents bought her that little house up on the bluff and her farm, and they sent a house elf every day to do her housework. Her parents paid for special agricultural consultants to set perpetual spells on the fields so that the fields are self-sustaining. Olivia doesn’t even have to do spellwork to harvest the strawberries. When they’re ripe, they hop along into the pint containers. All she does is drive the strawberries and her jams and juice to the ferry and sometimes she tables at the farmer’s markets, if none of her employees are available.

I don’t look down on any of the spellwork, those techniques are literally what we learned about in the Magically Enhanced Organic Farming curriculum. But I do think it’s misleading that she’s on Tiktok acting like she runs this farm all by herself when there are Muggles watching, not understanding how it all works. And having a house elf stop by everyday to make the food, clean the house, make her strawberries into jam and juice for the farmer’s market while she acts like she’s a domestic goddess. It makes me uncomfortable. All the house elves in the US are free of course, but it’s weird to be waited on. And obviously Olivia’s parents must pay their house elves at least the minimum wage, but I don’t know. In my experience, the richer you are the more of a tightwad you are. 

The only thing she seems to do herself is the potions. When I was with her on San Juan Island, she was always locked up in her potioneering room with all these smells and vapors wafting from under the door. She was a good potions student when we were at Ilvermorny.

But anyway, one day I woke up and realized I just didn’t want to be her smiling girlfriend on her Instagram. She always wanted me to play my cello in her strawberry patch, or in a field of wildflowers for Tiktok. I felt like a key to the algorithm for her. Quirky, beautiful, organic-strawberry-lesbians. I felt like all of my self-worth was coming from social media. I realized I needed to get back to Columbia and finish my degree. I had ended up taking a few quarters off to stay with her. So yeah, the last and final time we broke up and, for once, I was the one who ended things.”

Jade finished her last bite of cake while Luna and Romilda digested this story.

“I’m sorry that happened to you,” Luna said. 

“It’s alright. You live and learn. I did like being a social media star for a little while, but it wasn’t easy to find myself when we were always chasing more followers and the next viral video. I’ve already seen Olivia’s videos doing numbers with Ginny. That girl is so pretty and being a Quidditch star and a war hero and connected to Harry Potter is making her and Olivia pop off on Magical Tiktok, which isn’t a huge community compared to Muggle Tiktok, but the engagement is pushing it to more and more people, Magical and Muggle. I think one of their videos was viewed over 10 million times.”

“Does Ginny know about all the house elves and charms?” Romilda asked Luna.

“I don’t know, she and Rolf are always talking about how hard Olivia works on the farm,” Luna said.

“If the fields are magically enhanced, and the food she posts is being made by house elves, is it even legal to post online with the Statue of Secrecy?” asked Luna. “Things that directly reveal magic can only be in verified Wizarding feeds, and I know these are in her Muggle-visible feeds.”

Jade drank the last of her iced tea, the ice clinking against her teeth before she set it back down and then said: 

“I don’t know. My question is: if she’s not working on the strawberry fields, and we know she’s not, what is she doing all day? Brewing potions? I ended up leaving by saying I was going on a trip to visit my family and then just not coming back again. Maybe it’s paranoid, but knowing how she was misrepresenting things on Tiktok I was worried she might try to Obliviate me or something if she knew I was leaving for good.”

“Do you really think she would?” Luna asked.

“She’s really good at those memory charms. When we were in school, she would practice them on us. Have us look at a card and just erase that memory of which card it was. Stuff like that.”

“And you still wanted to hang out with her?” Romilda asked, incredulous.

“I don’t know what to tell you. She made it seem reasonable at the time.”

After they were done eating, Jade took them on a walk through the gardens to show them her favorite plants. Jade had finished her undergrad degree and was now in an English PhD program at Columbia, with one Magical advisor on her committee. 

“How do you Magically enhance studying English anyway?” asked Romilda.

“Mostly by Apparating around and taking Portkeys to get books that aren’t available in my school’s library,” Jade laughed. “My advisor actually once had a student who he was able to get a Time Turner for so she could go and dig up better sources and find out more about historical authors and references. I think that student was doing the Divine Comedy and got to observe all those old Italian aristocrats Dante was referencing. I think she also went and met different translators and the original publisher.”

Eventually Jade walked them back to the station. 

“Feel free to message me or call me if you have any other questions,” Jade said. “I know I should divest from the Olivia economy, but I’m so curious about what’s going on now. Oh, I don’t know. Maybe don’t tell me. Maybe I should move on.” 

---

They waved goodbye to Jade and went in through the big double doors of the Boston Station. In the main entry hall they looked up at the wooden board with carved number cards that flipped magically to show platform numbers, as well as arrival and departure times. 

Romilda peered at the Seattle departure times.

“Oh rats, looks like we missed the 6 o’clock portkey. The next one’s not until nine, and the last one’s at midnight”

“Do they have a Floo going there?”

“Imagine spinning all the way across the continent. Your inner ear would be fucked up. My cousin got vertigo from Flooing from London to Florida.”

“Okay... Should we go explore the Wizarding District a bit?”

And so the girls went back out the doors and into the growing dinner crowd outside. They walked by little restaurants and old bookstores that smelled of old wood, coffee and gently decomposing paper. Luna took them to an art store on a nearby Muggle street to buy a very small watercolor brush and from there Romilda spotted a shopping center that looked intriguing.

Back outside, Romilda holding bags of breezy sundresses, eyeshadow palettes, and whatever else caught her eye, Luna checked the time. 

“Only 7:15. Want to get dinner?”

The girls ended up at a Muggle restaurant a block away with the slowest service of any place they had ever been. And though they were both anxiously checking the time and watching the minutes flash by, and trying desperately to catch the waiter’s eye, or even see the waiter at all, by the time they had signed the receipt, it was 8:55. They ran out the restaurant, and onto the street where families strolled around eating ice cream, and couples held hands, and a delivery bike rider was zooming around on the sidewalk, effectively ruling out any chance for Apparition

“Shit, shit, shit,” Romilda said as they ran in the direction of the station dodging around people, their shopping bags bouncing against their legs in the warm summer evening. 

As they slammed through the doors of the station, they heard the announcer saying: “The 9 o’clock portkey to Seattle has departed.”

“Oh Godric, why?” said Romilda, collapsing on the floor dramatically.

“Come on now,” Luna said comfortingly. “Look at that nice waiting area. We can buy books here or at a bookshop, as I can’t see how that would take three hours, and then we’ll wait here and be on time for the last one.”

So they did as Luna suggested, which wasn’t all that bad. Luna stuffed all their purchases into her waist bag, as they weren’t that heavy, just a little bulky. Then they meandered back out, strolled past the same restaurants which now had little candles on the tables, and into the bookshop that Luna had wanted to go into anyway. Once they had each chosen something to read, they went back to the station and waited responsibly in the big tan leather couches near their portkey terminal, and finally made it back home.

Because of the time difference, it was only a little after nine when they got back to Aunt Florence’s living room. The rest of the group was washing dishes, reading, and generally milling about. Rolf was lying on a couch in the living room, nose deep in Dragon Lore of the Northwest Coast, a tome whose fun-sounding title belied its 1000 pages of small, densely set and very dry text. 

Romilda went into the kitchen where Persephone, the dryer, was handing dishes back to Charlie, the washer. 

“Still greasy.”

“Look at this, there’s rice still on this fork.”

Luna went to go sit in the armchair beside Rolf, who turned and smiled at her vaguely before returning to his book. 

“Rolf, can we go somewhere and talk for a bit?”

“I’m going to use this as one of my sources for this new chapter of my thesis, and I’ve got a meeting with my advisor tomorrow... Can it wait?”

“Okay, but before we go to bed.”

Rolf came up to their bedroom around eleven, looking tired and irritable. Luna was in bed, darning one of his wool hiking socks with a bit of tapestry thread.

“Can we still talk tonight?” she asked, looking up at him.

“Okay,” he said, heaving a tired sigh. “I still have to brush my teeth and I wanted to take a shower tonight.” 

When he was finally settled in bed next to her, he said with saint-like patience, “okay, what did you want to talk about?”

“So, Romilda and I went to Boston today.”

“You did?”

“Yes, and we saw your old classmate Jade.”

“Jade? Jade Ojo-Bloomfield?”

“Yes.”

Rolf was now up on an elbow, “Why?”

“Well,” said Luna, uncertainly. “We were curious about what went on with her and Olivia now that she’s spending so much time over here.”

“That’s so weird and invasive,” said Rolf immediately. “Imagine how you would feel if Olivia was trying to go stalk your exes, if you had them.”

Luna felt distinctly on her back foot. Rolf, who had before seemed sleepy and resigned, now seemed agitated, his eyes shining with an unusual intensity. 

“Okay, yes maybe it was unusual and invasive to try to meet Jade,” said Luna. “But the reason I’m bringing it up is because I’m concerned that she might be lying or misrepresenting herself to Ginny.”

“I really don’t see why you’re so concerned with their friendship.”

Luna was starting to feel annoyed. “It’s not really just a ‘friendship’ though, is it? What if they get together in a serious, official way, and Ginny gets stuck in another country with no other friends and just a partner who might be lying to her about important things?”

“They’re not even that serious or official,” Rolf scoffed. “Classic Olivia. Everyone always thought she had some serious intention with them, but it was just wishful thinking. For her, this is just a fling.”

“What are you talking about?” Luna demanded. “What do you know about their relationship? Honestly, you sound jealous.”

“Maybe it’s you who’s jealous!”

“Jealous of what?”

“Of the attention Olivia gets, of her personality, of my past with her!”

There was silence for a few minutes.

“So do you want to hear what I was going to tell you or not?”

“Not really.”

“Fine,” Luna said.

She rolled out of the bed, grabbed her book and a spare quilt, and left the room, tiptoeing down the creaky stairs to the thankfully empty lower level. 

She lay on the couch, silently fuming. Though she had been trying to deny it, even to herself, it was clear that Rolf still had feelings for Olivia and they seemed to be getting stronger by the day. She read her book by the light of a small glowing orb she had conjured, and was just beginning to let the story distract her and bore her enough that she almost felt like she could drift off when she heard steps on the staircase and her body tensed. That’s what she was forgetting, she should do a Disillusionment charm so no one would spot her if they got up early the next morning. She was scrambling for her wand, when the steps stopped by her. It was Rolf.

“Come on, Luna. Come back to bed.” 

“I want to be by myself right now.”

“You go upstairs. I can sleep on the couch instead.”

“No, thank you.”

“I don’t want the rest of the house thinking I’d make you sleep on the couch--”

“Fine, have at it.”

Chapter Text

Friday August 4

The next morning, the students were sitting around the living room on the white wicker furniture set. Charlie had called a group brainstorm first thing in the morning to write down everyone’s ideas about what could be happening with the tracking data. Everyone was sitting uncomfortably on the thin blue cushions which had a tendency to slide right off the furniture, sipping coffee or tea from Aunt Florence’s wedding china. 

Rolf was not in attendance, and Luna hadn’t seen him at all. He had slept on the couch, and presumably had gotten up at five as usual to go to his study site and do his morning observations. The study site that Olivia was constantly dropping by, according to Sam. Where he probably still was, while Olivia squirmed around on her yoga mat. 

“Could the spell on the tracker be wearing off?” asked Sam.

“We can’t discount the possibility that the dragons really are in the places the tracker is showing,” said Maude.

“Yes, since there isn’t very much habitat data for the dragons, we can’t be sure how unusual it would be for them to split off like this,” said Margaret.

“We do have the cultural knowledge and data from the Merpeople who say that they’ve never known this many dragons to take off on their own during the summer,” said Luna, who had been trying to listen despite her swirling thoughts.

“Maybe warming oceans or underwater noise pollution could be driving the dragons to do something weird?”

“Or a disease affecting their behavior?”

“Ocean acidification--?”

“I still think it’s most likely faulty trackers...”

“Or could the trackers have been tampered with?” 

They reviewed the data they had so far, with miniscule model dragons moving around on their map of the Pacific Northwest coast, showing a time lapse of the coordinates they had collected. Three or four dragons were still stubbornly sliding off the map in all different directions no matter how many times Charlie checked to make sure the spells were cast properly.

“Alright folks,” said Charlie, shaking his head. “I need to make sure this is all calibrated correctly. I might need to see if I can take a few Floos or a Portkey to Cambridge,” he glanced at his watch. “If I go now, I can check in with my colleague who has experience with these spells before he heads to bed. So why don’t you all keep your fingers crossed that I’ll be able to clear this up and you all go take the afternoon off.”

Luna took a moment to clear away a few teacups from students who had rushed off the moment Charlie dismissed them. Then she went to the garden where Ginny was pruning the tomato plants.

“Are you lot all done then?” asked Ginny.

“Yes, your brother is apparently going to head all the way back to Cambridge to see if he can get some answers about the tracking spells.”

“Huh, good luck to him. Those cross-continental Floos are not that fun. I actually threw up a few years ago when I Flooed from England to Australia. Going in and out of so many fireplaces for little breaks so your ears don’t explode. Anyway, got any plans for your free afternoon”

“There’s always more work to do with my Mervillage project, but there’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Okay, want to go on a walk?”

It was cool outside, sprinkling. The girls wore raincoats over their t-shirts, their skin sticking to the inside of the sleeves. The wet grass on the road’s edge soaked their socks and scratched their ankles. They walked for several minutes, without saying much beyond a few comments on the weather.

“So, what’s up?” Ginny asked.

Luna took a deep breath, her heart beating fast. “I wanted to talk to you about Olivia.”

“What about her?”

“So, I did something kind of weird yesterday, I met up with her ex-girlfriend Jade, because I was worried that there was something strange going on with Olivia.”

Ginny, who had been walking beside her, with her eyes mostly ahead or glancing along the road for cars, stopped. Luna stopped beside her.

“Strange in what way?” Ginny’s bright brown eyes were confused.

“Ah, I shouldn’t have brought this up,” Luna said, reddening, putting one hand up to cover her face. “Sorry, this is hard to tell you, because I feel like I should be minding my own business, but I can’t, and I’m telling you something that’s going to sound like I’m bitter or jealous or --”

Ginny put a hand on Luna’s arm, over her damp rain jacket. “Come on Luna, I’d never think that you’re bitter or jealous or anything like that. You are probably the least bitter, most generous person I’ve ever known.” 

Luna gave a small smile. 

They started walking along again.

“I thought that Olivia just didn’t seem.... didn’t seem that nice,” said Luna. “And the girls in the house who went to school with her said she was sort of manipulative, and what she’s said about running the farm, making and bottling and distributing her potions, and making the jam, jelly, and then still having time to make all the fancy meals you eat, go sailing once a week sometimes for several days, and be at our house all the time.. It just seemed so unmanageable.”

Ginny turned to her eagerly, “but Luna, that’s why I admire her so much! It’s so inspiring! I totally get how you’d think that she couldn’t manage that, but she wakes up super early and has such a strict routine--”

“What Jade told us is that her family’s house elf is doing her housework and canning, and that she doesn’t really do any work on the farm because specialists set charms on the fields so there’s no work for her to do---”

“Oh Luna, don’t worry about any of that.” Ginny sounded relieved. “Olivia’s told me about Jade. Jade was really mad about the way things ended between them, because Jade got tired of living here and was really angry when Olivia wouldn’t move to Boston. She told that stuff to some mutual friends because she was in a bad place.”

“But--”

“I’ve never seen any sign of a house elf at Olivia’s place, and I’m there all the time! And when I go over for lunch, she’s usually finishing up cooking and then she works on the farm in the afternoon, and sometimes we get to talking, so I go out to the field with her and we’ll weed together or I’ll help her water the plants. But I really appreciate you looking out for me. You’re too good to me, honestly.”

“I guess I’m not convinced, because the story Jade told us rang so true, but you would know better than me.”

They kept walking along the roadside, getting closer to town. The rain had stopped and the clouds were blowing away.

“Let me buy you coffee,” Ginny said, as they walked along the waterfront toward the center of town. “I haven’t seen you as much as I’ve wanted to, and it’s totally my fault, by the way.”

“It’s okay. Everyone’s so busy.”

“So what was Jade like?” Ginny asked once they had their iced coffees in hand.

Luna looked over at her. “She’s gorgeous, talented, smart and she’s going to be an English professor.”

“I figured as much. I’ve seen her in some of Oivia’s old Tiktoks.”

“I’ll grant Olivia that much, she does have good taste in who she dates.”

“Yeah, not dissimilar taste as you, I guess,” said Ginny, idly, then blushing. “I mean--”

“I guess--”

“I was thinking about Rolf, sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything, sorry.”

Luna looked a little crestfallen. 

“Did you tell Rolf this stuff Jade said about Olivia?” Ginny asked.

“He really didn’t want to hear it... They’re probably hanging out right now anyway.” Luna paused. “I don’t want to overstep..”

“What?”

“Are you and Olivia... exclusive? Like have you had that conversation?”

“Not yet.”

“You don’t think that she and Rolf..?” she trailed off meaningfully.

“Oh, no, definitely not. She told me that nothing’s happened since high school. I don’t think they’ve even seen each other since high school”

They sat together on a bench looking out at the water.

Ginny fiddled with the straw in her cup.

“I’m sorry,” she said suddenly. “I feel like I’ve been spending all this time with Olivia and Rolf, and it feels like Rolf isn’t... He’s not...”

“He’s not being a good partner to me?”

“Yeah, but maybe it’s not for me to say.”

“No, I agree.”

“I’ll talk to Olivia,” said Ginny resolutely. “I think she’s such a people person and she’s always in the middle of social activities, it really draws everyone in --”

“Oh, please don’t,” said Luna, putting her face in her hands. “The last thing I want is to try to control him. And I don’t want everyone else involved in trying to save our relationship anyway.”

Neither spoke for a few minutes. 

“I’m so glad Hermione was able to visit,” Ginny ventured.

“I just wish she could have stayed longer!”

And for the rest of the afternoon they spoke of that and many other things, like the new uniforms for the Holyhead Harpies which Ginny had a picture of on her phone, Teddy Lupin and his behavioral issues at primary school (his teacher said he’s distracting everyone else with ‘silly faces,’ -- “oh my God, is he metamorphing in class?” “Yes, his grandma told the teacher that she’s a hairdresser and costume make-up artist to explain his makeovers.”)

They started to get hungry so they headed in the direction of the town’s brewery, passing the grocery store where they saw Persephone and Charlie headed through the doors with a shopping list.

“Do you think Persephone can win my brother’s heart?” asked Ginny conversationally. “She likes him, right?”

“Oh definitely, but she’s far too professional to make an overt move while we’re all working together.””

“Does Romilda like him too?”

“I mean, she hasn’t said anything to me directly about that.”

“Just wondering if I should be testing his comestibles for love potion is all.”

“Ah, come on,” said Luna. “Romilda’s not fourteen anymore. She’d be a more fun girlfriend than Persephone, surely.”

“There’s no denying that, I guess.”

They shared a big pretzel with beer cheese sauce and ate sandwiches for dinner, with beer, of course. 

“Are you reading anything good?” asked Ginny. “I remember at Hogwarts how you always had your Muggle novels.”

They talked about the different books they had found all over Aunt Florence’s house, the novels to be found in little free libraries, the selection at the bookstore. 

They finished their dinner and started walking again.

“Did you hear that Oliver Wood wrote a memoir?” Ginny asked as they wandered. “I brought it with me, but I haven’t started it yet...”

“ The Quibbler ran an interview Katie Bell did with him right before it came out--”

“Katie interviewed him? I wonder if Harry read that.... I should send him the link...”

“I guess he has chronic spell damage from an injury at the Battle of Hogwarts, so a lot of the book is about that, and I guess his twins were born a few months early...”

“Okay, I should start reading that. I’ve been trying to get through this book on strategy Gwenog wants me to read.”

“What percentage of books you read are about Quidditch?”

They were headed generally in the direction of home. When they reached the turn off to the house, Ginny turned to Luna who looked apprehensive. “What do you think, shall we head home?”

“I might stay out for a bit,” said Luna, looking at the sky. The clouds were starting to soften, but the late summer sunset was still an hour or so off. 

“Okay, wait for me, I’ll be back in a moment,” said Ginny, before jogging down the road to the house.

Luna idly thumbed through her social media apps while she waited, and soon Ginny was back with her backpack. “Just wanted a few things,” she explained. “Where to?”

They walked all the way to American Camp, a historical park from the 1800s.  

“Seemed like a dumb war,” said Luna, as they read some historical placards. “All this drama over what, a pig or something?”

“I’ve tried to read these, but I get bored and stop,” said Ginny. “Let’s go this way,” she said, pointing to the lighthouse. 

They climbed up the hill, on the little path through the long grasses to where the light house stood, overlooking the water. Swallows flitted around, swooping and diving low over the meadows. Wildflowers were edged with golden light as the sun began to sink into the water. 

Ginny pulled a picnic blanket out of her bag and settled it down. “I researched how to do this charm Olivia told me about that makes the blanket feel like it’s not just over hard dirt and rocks.”

“Oh the featherbed charm?” Luna crouched down and leaned on the blanket with one hand. “I’ve tried to do that on this blanket I got from the charity shop and it caught the blanket on fire... I’m glad I tested it because I wanted to do it on this old quilt my mom made, but I never figured it out.”

“I could do it for you, if you want,” Ginny said, as they both sat down on the blanket, taking their shoes off.

“That would be nice,” said Luna, settling back on the blanket, propped up on one elbow. 

Ginny copied her pose. 

“Those lights are Canada,” she said, pointing. “Victoria, British Columbia.”

“I had been hoping Rolf would want to go there, or Vancouver,” said Luna, sighing, flopping down on the blanket. “Maybe Romilda would go with me or Maude and Margaret.”

“I’d go--” Ginny said, still up on one elbow, watching Luna.

“When you’re not busy with Olivia?”

“Anytime you wanted.”

They were quiet for a while. Luna’s eyes were closed, and Ginny was still, watching her. Slowly tears started to streak down the sides of Luna’s face. Ginny shifted a little closer, set her free hand on Luna’s shoulder. 

“I don’t think he loves me anymore,” said Luna, quietly. Her eyes were still closed, as the tears continued to fall. 

“If so, he’s an idiot. Who wouldn’t love you?” Ginny asked, impulsively.

Luna opened her eyes to look at her narrowly, then flopped an arm over her eyes. 

“He’s a wanker,” Ginny said. “Really. A dick. A ding-dong, a bastard, a ne'er-do well. I’m never going to speak to him again. He’s dead to me.”

Luna chuckled weakly. 

“Let’s have some wine,” said Ginny, digging some little plastic cups and a bottle of wine out of her backpack. “I also brought cards, a loaf of bread..”

‘What else is in that backpack?” said Luna.

“Oh this and that. You know, it’s funny. A few months ago I was right where you are. Crying over a man, having wine foisted upon me.”

“Oh yeah?”

“We shouldn’t have stayed together past Hogwarts,” said Ginny, sipping the wine. “Probably shouldn’t have made it past my fifth year.”

Luna stayed quiet. The sun had disappeared, bats were replacing the swallows, their turn to eat the little insects that flew through the cool air. 

“Being on the Harpies, and getting to meet other women who aren’t dating men... Seeing Olivia this summer, thinking about the past...” she glanced at Luna. “I think part of the reason I’ve felt so trapped by expectations in this relationship is that I think I just prefer,” she blushed, trailing off for a moment. “I think I just prefer to be with women.” She looked off at the water.

“Are you really embarrassed to be telling me this?” Luna asked, amused. “Babe, maybe you don’t remember, but I’ve known for a long time that you like being with women.”

Ginny rolled her eyes. “I’m trying to tell you about my identity and this is my reception, huh?”

“I had an inkling that Harry might not be cutting it for you,” Luna said, feeling rash, just like she did back then.

Ginny’s ears reddened.

Luna smirked a little to herself, and closed her eyes. “I remember.”

“So do I.”

*

There was only one time during seventh year that Luna was sure she didn’t dream up everything that had happened the year before. 

Ginny and Luna hadn’t been alone together in months, they sat in big groups at meals, on the grounds, in the common rooms, and at the library. Luna never picked the chair next to Ginny, because Ginny never picked the chair next to hers. 

When the school year first started and Harry would kiss Ginny on the cheek, or wind those bright red locks around his finger, Luna would almost feel sick. On more than one occasion, when Harry came into a room they were all in, Luna would leave quietly, unobtrusively. 

One day in October, Luna had slipped out of the Gryffindor common room where she had planned to meet everyone (everyone being Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Neville) to work on their potions essays together. Harry and Ginny had arrived later than the rest, having been at Quidditch practice. They arrived freshly showered, pink faces glowing, Harry’s hand resting on the small of her back. They had nestled onto the same couch as Luna, Harry between the girls, his arm draped casually over Ginny’s shoulders as he asked Hermione to remind him of the particulars of the assignment. 

Luna muttered something about forgetting a book in her dorm and hurriedly brushed away, facing no one, alarmed to feel tears starting in her eyes. Outside the Fat Lady, she sped down the hallway, considering Disillusioning herself to make sure no one saw her. She just barely managed to get to the Room of Requirement, which had luckily not been in use, and fell through the door. 

The Room had made a cozy bed in front of a crackling fireplace, boxes of tissues, and a big window to see the rain falling outside. Luna kicked off her shoes and dove under the covers, sobbing. She didn’t even hear when Neville came in, until he sat down on the bed, untied his own shoes and got in beside her. Luna rolled over and leaned her head on his shoulder. 

“All this about Ginny, huh?”

Luna didn’t respond, still crying.

“We gotta get you out of here, mate. We’re sneaking out tonight and we’re going dancing.”

“What?” Luna asked, grabbing a tissue. “We can’t do that.”

“You want to stay here and cry forever?”

And so Neville and Luna started sneaking through the exits of the castle, Apparating to nearby pubs and bars and clubs all over Scotland. 

“How can you miss her, if you know you’re having more fun than her?” Neville shouted over the music, as they shimmied around in slinky Muggle clothes.

*

Neville’s plan was working, though Luna didn’t always think it was that fun to go dance with strangers in Scottish pubs, so whenever they felt the need to ‘have more fun than Ginny’ they would still make their escape, but sometimes it would be to go on a hike Luna had read about in a Muggle guidebook, or to a museum opening, or to the blowing, freezing, seaside to eat hot soup and buy big yellow rain slickers to protect them from the sea spray. On a school night or if they were feeling too lazy to leave the castle, or if the weather looked too unpleasant, they’d work on Dances & Detentions, which had been greenlit by a game publisher who had sent Neville a hefty advance. Neville spent the galleons lavishly on the two of them.

As sneaking out of the castle proved to be very easy, especially as the war heroes were essentially above the rules now, Neville was soon convincing Luna to go all the way down to London to hang out with his Muggle neighbor, Kareem, who Neville had a big crush on. When they’d meet Kareem outside of the neighborhood school, or went to his house, they had to be careful not to be spotted by Augusta who would be very displeased to see them sneaking out of Hogwarts.

Luna wasn’t over Ginny, but whenever she thought about her and Harry, Luna was able, through Neville’s cajoling, to throw herself into having fun or being productive.

Luna’s capstone project for seventh year was about the Black Lake mermaids. After a long afternoon working on the written portions of her project she had spent the evening swimming in the lake and practicing conversational Mermish with a Bubblehead charm. Even her wet suit and frequent warming charms had done little to stave off the bone deep chill of a swim in the February-cold waters, so she had shivered her way up to the Prefect’s bathroom, and run a hot bath with rose oil and wildflower petals. She had been floating in the buoyant foam when she heard Ginny’s voice.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t realize you were in here,” Ginny said. She had just opened the door and was turning to leave. Luna, who was still drifting in the soap, saw her wet and muddy Quidditch robes, and her hands that were so cold some fingers had turned a yellowish white.

“Long practice?” she asked, not feeling all that shy as the bubbles were very thick.

“Yeah,” Ginny said, huffing out a laugh. “The rest of the team is probably mad at me. We were all freezing with the wind chill.”

“Well, this bath is as big as a swimming pool,” Luna said, undone by the sight of her cold hands. Rash without Neville’s presence. “You can come in.”

Ginny bit her lip.

“I don’t want--” she began. “I don’t want to invade your space.”

“You’re not,” Luna said, quietly.

An oh-fuck-it expression passed over Ginny’s face. Luna had seen that face so many times the year before. Whenever Ginny was about to take a risk, that look passed over her. Ginny was breathing a bit faster as she struggled out of her wet robes that stuck to her skin.

Luna leaned over the edge of the pool, watching. Ginny pulled off the robe and struggled out of her wool baselayer, and looked over at Luna, her body, generous where Ginny’s was spare. Ginny shimmied out of her wool leggings and socks and then slid her knickers down and tossed them onto her pile of clothes.

Luna swam a little ways away as Ginny climbed down the gold-plated ladder into the water. Once they were both submerged, the foam obscured them. 

“You haven’t been around much,” Ginny commented, treading water.

“Guess not,” said Luna, who despite herself, felt her chest expand with happiness. Do you miss me?”

“Duh,” said Ginny, flicking some bubbles at her.

“Well, come catch me!” She splashed Ginny, and kicked off the side of the pool, shooting off toward the middle.

Ginny sputtered water for a moment and then grinned. She swam after Luna, hands grasping, catching a dip of the waist, a foot sliding out of her grip, a thigh. 

Ginny cornered her against the wall of the pool, her arms on either side of Luna. Both of their hair was soaked, streaming down into their eyes, into their open mouths as they both caught their breath, as they stared into each other's eyes, wondering.

Trapped in this little prison of Ginny’s lean arms, Luna felt lightheaded, desperate, trembling. The seconds stretched out longer and longer, Luna taking her in when Ginny finally pulled herself in closer, floating, her body suddenly touching Luna’s, wet skin on wet skin and her neck, her ear. Her restraint evaporated completely. Luna grabbed Ginny and pulled her even closer, kissing her shoulders, her mouth. Ginny floated to her side, one elbow propped up on the pool edge, the other reaching below. Then she let go and Luna felt her heart stop, but Ginny grabbed her hand and pulled her to the ladder, “come on,” she whispered.  

Ginny went to the hamper of clean folded towels and began laying them down on one of the wide wooden benches, one after another. Luna watched her shoulder blades wing up and down, the dimples at the base of her spine, the long strong limbs, her hair dark with water streaming down her spine and dripping down .

“Come over here,” Ginny said, turning her head, “lie down.” whispered in her ear. Luna did so.

Chapter Text

Saturday Aug 5  

Ginny woke up that morning on the picnic blanket, on the hill by the lighthouse. The night before she had transfigured Luna’s sweater into a warm green knit blanket. But she woke up briefly, very early, the morning light shining on the dew drops and illuminating spiderwebs in the tall grasses. There were even a few dew drops beaded on Luna’s pale fringe. Ginny smiled to herself and fell back asleep. 

There would be time later for coffee by the waterfront, for toast in the kitchen. For long walks into town to talk about their lives, and their friends, for Ginny to explain how much their friendship meant to her. For Ginny to apologize for what happened, for those months at Grimmauld Place when Ginny couldn’t hold a conversation with her because of the guilt, the lingering attraction, trying to guess how Harry might feel. 

*** 

Luna awoke on the hill, filled with a peace she hadn’t felt all summer, until she glanced at her watch and saw she was about to miss a Floo call with a professor that she had scheduled two weeks ago. She woke up a confused Ginny, said a hasty goodbye, and Disapparated.

After the call, Luna had plans in the Mervillage for the rest of the day. That evening, Luna came out of the water closer to town than usual, after going on a long underwater ramble with her Mermaid contact, discussing the dragons, her Mermaid friend showing her different underwater sites the dragons frequented. Luna’s friend had mentioned seeing someone swimming close to one of the nesting sites just the day before. Strange since the water was so cold and choppy and not at all pleasant to swim in. 

Luna came up out of the water not far from where Olivia’s boat was docked. She got a few strange looks from the tourists at the waterfront park as she waded to shore. She struggled out of her wetsuit in the marina bathroom, pleased to have her new roll-top dry bag with clothes inside. She did a quick drying charm on her wet suit and stuffed it into a big plastic bag she had brought for this purpose. She considered casting a warming charm on herself, since she was so bone-chilled from the water, but decided that a cup of clam chowder sitting on a sun-warmed bench in the park would be more satisfying. 

After getting her soup to-go, Luna was situated in the park. She had a good view of the whale-watching ships and the people going to their sail boats in the marina. While she was looking out at the water, she got a call from Hermione.

“Hi Luna! Okay, so here’s what’s up. I ordered some of the potions that Olivia sells on her website right after Ginny told me about them. Actually, I asked a friend to order them for me because I didn’t want Olivia to see my name. They arrived at my flat a few days ago and I asked Padma Patil to help me analyze them.”

“What degree is she working on now? I always forget and then I feel like I should already know so I don’t ask.”

“It’s a PhD in Magically Enhanced Biochemistry, so essentially potions but with Muggle technology and knowledge about chemicals.”

“Oh, right,” said Luna.

“Anyway, her advisor knows pretty much everything about potioneering and the history of potions. So I asked Padma about it and she asked her advisor and what we found out is that Olivia’s potions seem to be from that famous San Francisco potioneering store, Fleischmann and Bartleby. From what we can tell, she’s just adding some strawberry juice and repackaging those potions.”

“I don’t know much about the pre-made potion industry. Don’t you think it might just be that she’s using a common recipe for the potions that they use as well?”

“That’s what I thought, but Padma says that all of Fleischmann and Bartleby’s recipes are trademarked so no one else can legally sell the same product.”

“But you say it’s got strawberry juice--”

“That’s not an active ingredient. There’s a legal precedent that the recipe has to be materially different, so if you add an inactive ingredient to their recipe it doesn’t count as an original potion. The strawberry juice doesn’t affect the magic, so Olivia’s potions work the exact same way as the F&B potion. The juice is just marketing and aesthetics. In similar cases of trademark infringement, it’s always gone the way of the plaintiff.”

“Okay...”

“Also,” Hermione continued. “There’s this flower in one of the potions. Padma’s advisor had to get one of her colleagues in the botany department to help us with this, actually. It’s a wild rose with some magical properties, and its flowers vary in color really dramatically. The color is dependent on the soil chemistry, the groundwater, the climate, and other factors so the flower color is unique to its location. There were petals in one of the potions and the pigmentation of the flower is the way it grows in the Bay Area.”

“What does the flower in the potion you bought look like?”

“Around the city of San Francisco, the flowers are usually a really pale pink with white freckles and that’s what was in the potion. This flower loses potency really fast, so you have to brew them within a few hours, so it’s not likely that Olivia would be sourcing the flower from California, when it also grows wild in the San Juan Islands. It’s a periwinkle blue up where you are.”

“Okay, so let’s say Olivia is repackaging their potions. Do you think that Fleischmann and Bartleby is aware that’s she’s doing this?”

“I have no idea.”

The line was quiet for a few moments.

“You know, I went to that store when I was in San Francisco a few weeks ago. It was interesting, but I don’t see how it was that different or special than any other potion store. Do you know why it’s so famous?”

“Padma says that Fleischmann and Bartleby’s reputation is built on their ability to source unusual ingredients that everyone has a lot of trouble getting their hands on. Staff members who are able to find new suppliers for rare ingredients often rise in the ranks.”  

“So what she’s doing...”

“It’s definitely not legal, but copyright infringement is more of a civil issue than criminal in Washington, unless there’s some sort of harm that can be proven--”

“Hang on a second --”

There was the ferry landing at the dock. And there out of the corner of Luna’s eye was Olivia pulling up in her little white pick-up truck, emblazoned with her farm’s strawberry logo, probably dropping off some strawberries for the mainland. It seemed strange to Luna, who had imagined that shipping out strawberries was a morning activity. 

“I’ve got to go, Hermione.”

“But wait, should we tell Gin-”

Luna had already hung up, already walking toward the ferry. She cast a Disillusionment charm, threw away her soup cup, and wandered closer to the ferry, staying in shadow.

Olivia had pulled her truck into the ferry waiting area and climbed down out of the cab and walked toward the walk-on area. The blonde ferry worker, Zachary Wheeler, according to Kinglsey, met her there and then he walked over to Olivia’s truck and got in. 

Olivia walked back into the town, and headed into a dark alleyway where she looked around herself once before Disapparating. Luna went over to the walk-on area where passengers were starting to board and followed the crowd onto the ferry. Still Disillusioned, she paced stealthily around the passenger area, waiting to see Zachary Wheeler. 

After about twenty minutes, when all the cars were on board and their drivers were wandering around, Luna spotted him headed to the galley. She watched him get in line and order a hamburger and a beer. Once he had settled down in one of the booths, Luna went below deck to find Olivia’s truck. She took off the Disillusionment charm, which was a bit taxing to keep on after a long day with a Bubblehead charm. She slipped her wand into her dry bag at her waist. 

All the drivers around Olivia’s truck had also left their cars, so there was no one watching. She climbed up on the bumper and saw lots of flats of strawberries in the bed of the truck. Maybe there was nothing strange going on after all. But amidst the smell of sun-warm strawberries, Luna caught a whiff of an overripe banana. 

Salish Sea Dragon poison. 

Then a feeling like a big heavy cushion was smacking the back of her head. 

Then nothing.

Chapter Text

Saturday August 5

Luna woke up with a throbbing head. Unsure of her surroundings, she kept her eyes shut, and listened. It felt like she was lying on a metal surface.

“I think she’s onto us. She’s the one who saw me at the nesting site,” a deep voice said. “And she was snooping around in the truck on the ferry. I saw her looking at the boxes, but I don’t know if she actually saw the dragon.”

“Go figure that it would be her who would get in my way,” said a female voice. “She’s been such a nuisance all summer. I don’t know what everyone sees in her.”

“What should we do with her?”

“We need to get rid of her memory around what she’s seen and plant a false memory to cover up. But that will take a while. And it’s pretty difficult to target specific memories with the amnesia potion, but it’s better than Obliviate... I’ll have to special order the potion, probably from San Francisco, and then I’ll need my dad to come up and do the spellwork to make the false memories.”

“Seems like we could get in a lot of trouble for that...”

“If we don’t, any memories she might have about the dragons would be admissible evidence in a case against us, or she could testify under Veritaserum. We need that head as empty as it normally seems to be.”

“How long is this going to take?”

“A couple of days. You can stash her at your place for now.”

“Okay... but I don’t like it. They’ve got a big group up at that house, and someone’s going to notice if she’s not back.”

“Well, you’ll just have to leave it to me. Don’t forget to take her wand.”

“I already checked for that. She doesn’t have a wand on her. I did find her phone in her shorts pocket, though and a bag with some gum and an old used tissue.”

“Ugh, sounds about right. She’s not someone who really takes care of her body.”

“Huh, I guess.”

“Like, she’s probably got allergies or a weak immune system, which isn’t surprising since she eats so much sugar and never seems to get any exercise.”

“Okay...”

“Rolf said that she never works out, she just wanders around all day. But anyway, no wand and trying to mess with us, huh? Oh look, she’s waking up. Stupefy !”

---

Saturday Aug 5

Olivia: hi babe, want to sleep over tonight? we could watch You’ve Got Mail 

Ginny: ok! I’ll try not to fall asleep lol. we’re about to eat dinner, want to come over?

Olivia: sounds good! xoxo

It was Charlie’s night to make dinner and he had made homemade macaroni and cheese with buttery golden bread crumbs and a cranberry, walnut, arugula salad. The group was sitting at the long rickety table in the dining room, with the dishes in the middle. 

“Is Luna still at the Mervillage then?” asked Maude.

“I guess so,” said Margaret.

“I actually ran into her this morning,” said Olivia, loading salad onto her plate. “She told me that she was staying in the village for a night or two because she has so much work to get done.”

“Is she really?” asked Ginny. “Staying in a Bubblehead charm for all that time? She’s so committed.” 

“Huh, she didn’t tell me,” said Rolf, who admittedly had only seen her in passing around lunchtime and neither of them attempted to speak to the other. Olivia’s hand was on the back of his chair.

“I imagine the Merpeople have their own magic for creating a dry space down there,” said Olivia. “I doubt she has to do any impressive magic or anything.”

After the dishes were clean, Olivia and Ginny biked back to Olivia’s house. They snuggled up on the couch to watch the movie on Olivia’s laptop. Olivia sent a few flames flickering into the fireplace with a casual swish of her wand. Lying in Olivia’s embrace, Ginny looked around the familiar living room. Baskets full of cozy patchwork quilts, the old stone fireplace, the big windows, showing the barest remainder of twilight. No signs of a house elf anywhere. It had been good of Luna to try and help her out, but clearly that ex of Olivia’s had a serious axe to grind.

“Do you want some tea, babe?” Olivia asked. 

“Sure.”

“Don’t pause the movie, this will only take a second.”

Ginny paused it anyway, watching Olivia go to the kitchen. Olivia was reaching into her cupboard, finding the teabags. Her hair looked so pretty, Ginny thought. As Olivia found what she was looking for, closing the cupboard door again, Ginny turned back to look at the laptop screen, not wanting to be caught gazing at Olivia. 

The scene they had paused on took place at night, and Ginny could see Olivia’s reflection in the dark screen. Olivia was pouring the boiling water into mugs, adding tea bags, and then a careful teaspoon of something out of a small bottle. Ginny couldn’t tell what it was. Then Olivia was reaching into the fridge for her homemade oat milk that Ginny had watched her make on Tiktok. It was sweetened with organic dates and strained through cheesecloth.

When she came back to the couch with two steaming mugs, Ginny asked, “What kind of tea is it?”

“It’s a green tea latte with oat milk.”

Ginny took a sip. 

“Wow, it’s really good,” she said in surprise. “I’m not usually a big green tea person. But this reminds me,” she inhaled deeply. “Somehow of the marshy little pond in my parents’ backyard. I know that doesn’t sound good, but it is.”

Olivia laughed. “I thought you’d like it. You should drink it while it’s still warm.”

Ginny obediently drank some more before laying down across the couch with her head in Olivia’s lap, eyes on the screen again.

“I feel so close to you,” Olivia murmured, smoothing her hair.

Ginny kissed her leg with a contented sigh and within five minutes had fallen asleep.

Sunday Aug 6

The next morning, Olivia woke Ginny up with a green smoothie. 

“It’s kale, flax seed, coconut yogurt, and a few other things I had hanging around,” said Olivia, drinking hers through a glass straw, sitting next to Ginny on the bed.

Ginny wrapped her arms around Olivia’s waist. 

“I had so many dreams last night,” Ginny said. “Lots about you. I don’t remember them all, but they were all sexy.” 

Olivia set her glass down on the bedside table and lay down next to Ginny, pulling her in and kissing her.

“Be good and drink your smoothie, and maybe dreams will become a reality.”

Ginny tasted hers. Just like the green tea latte the night before, it was better than she had expected, with a sharp verdant taste that was somehow energizing and relaxing. As she drank, Olivia walked two fingers over Ginny’s bare leg, getting closer and closer to the edge of Ginny’s pajama shorts.

Ginny set her glass aside with a clunk on the table and dove back into bed. She tackled Olivia with her embrace, kissing her neck up and down, pulling off her tank top haphazardly. Olivia took Ginny’s old holey bedtime t-shirt and pulled it up and over her head. She took Ginny by the shoulders and gently pushed her down, pulling Ginny’s pajama shorts off. 

***

Afterwards, they were both lying on top of the thin summer duvet. Ginny couldn’t stop staring at Olivia. 

“You’re so beautiful,” Ginny murmured, her hand tracing Olivia’s side. “I can’t believe it. You’re like a picture in a magazine. You’re like a painting.”

“There are two things I’ve got on my mind,” said Olivia, taking Ginny’s hand and kissing her fingers. “One is long term and one is short term.”

“Tell me about the long term,” said Ginny, dreamily.

“I’ve been wondering what you’re going to do this fall. Seattle’s got some of the strongest women’s sports teams in the world, both for Muggles and Magical folks. The Seattle Thunder is the best US Quidditch team and their members are consistently on the World Cup squad.”

“I’m already on a Quidditch team,” said Ginny.

“Yes, baby, I know,” said Olivia. “Do you know something?” she asked, almost shyly. “I’ve watched all your matches. When I can’t fall asleep I just watch you play on my phone.”

“That’s really cute,” said Ginny, cuddling closer to her. “How do I get to be with someone this beautiful and cute?”

“I want us to be together, like really together.”

“You want to be my girlfriend?” Ginny felt so nervous, so excited, almost like she was about to throw up.

“I do,” Olivia said, smiling at her from under her lashes. “Ginny, I’m falling in love with you.”

Ginny stared wide-eyed.

“I know you’re just out of a really long-term, serious relationship, so I don’t expect you to say anything. I just wanted you to know.”

Ginny pressed her mouth, soft and just ever so slightly open to Olivia’s. She wanted her again. 

Twenty minutes later, Ginny was lying on Olivia’s chest, under her arm.

“The other thing I’ve been wondering, which is a little more mundane: do you want to go camping?” asked Olivia. “There are some marine state parks only accessible by non-motorized boats near here. We could go today. I love the campsites on Stuart Island.”

“And you’d take us in your sailboat?” asked Ginny. “That sounds amazing!”

“I know this isn’t as romantic, but maybe we should take Rolf along,” said Olivia. “I think he’s feeling a little neglected with Luna always so busy in the Mervillage, plus we used to go backpacking and sailing all the time, so he’s been wanting to go with me sometime this summer.”

“Oh, Luna,” said Ginny, suddenly. “I don’t think we ought to leave until she’s back from the Mervillage, especially if you want to ask Rolf to go as well.”

“Why?” said Olivia. “I love how caring you are, but, I for one, have so much confidence in Luna to know her limits and be capable in any situation she finds herself in. She’s so independent and she really knows what she’s doing. I’d consider her just as safe doing her fieldwork as she is at home, honestly.”

“Do you really think so?” asked Ginny. “That’s so sweet. I do agree, of course, Luna is one of the most talented, capable people I know. She’s always thinking outside the box.”

“I agree,” said Olivia. “She’s really amazing.”

“Do you really think so? I knew you two would like each other once you got to know each other.”

“I’ve liked her from the beginning, but yes just yesterday we had a great conversation and I think we’ve really cleared the air between us.”

“Huh,” said Ginny. “Well, what if all four of us went camping once she’s back? I’d love to spend time all together.”

“Luna might not be back for a few days. At least that’s what she told me. And then I’m really busy this week with work and next weekend with farmer’s markets, because my usual girl who works my stand is on vacation, so I really can only go camping if we go tonight.”

“I don’t know,” said Ginny, uncertainly.

“Well, how about this,” said Olivia. “I’ll get all the stuff packed, I can bring your clothes that are here. And if you’re not feeling sure this afternoon, you can always stay home.”

“Okay, I guess I can’t argue with that.” Ginny stretched luxuriously on the bed. “I’d better go home and get my garden chores done.”

“Great, I’ll get everything ready and come pick you up around two.”

*

Back at the house, Ginny turned the sprinklers on and picked a few little yellow pear tomatoes. Maude had left a note asking if Ginny would pick some lettuce and chives for that night’s dinner. While Ginny was putting these in the crisper drawer, Romilda came in.

“Is Luna back yet?” Ginny asked. “I want to ask her if she wants to go camping with me and Olivia.”

“Thanks for the invite--” Romilda began.

“Oh, you can--”

“I’m just yanking your chain,” Romilda said, waving an airy hand. “I would never want to go camping with Olivia.”

“Okay...”

“But no, I haven’t seen Luna since she went to the Mervillage.”

“Oh, okay,” said Ginny, turning back to the fridge.

“Also,” said Romilda, “I think it’s very strange that she supposedly only told Olivia, of all people, that she was going to stay in the Mervillage.”

“I mean, it sounds like it may have been a spur of the moment decision,” said Ginny, as she inspected a suspicious tupperware of leftovers. “Olivia said she just ran into Luna and they ended up chatting. It’s not like Luna sought her out to confide in or something like that.”

“Well, of course she wouldn’t confide in Olivia,” said Romilda, rolling her eyes. “I just think Luna is so methodical about her work, it’s strange for her to do something like this so last minute --”

Romilda broke off as Rolf strolled into the kitchen. 

“Would you mind if I took a peek in there, Ginny?” he asked, peering over her shoulder into the fridge. “I want to make a little sandwich before we set off.”

“Where are you going?” asked Romilda.

“We’re going camping with Olivia,” Rolf said. Adding reluctantly, “you can probably come if you really want to, but we’d have to check with Olivia.”

“I don’t want to go camping with Oliva,” said Romilda, testily. “You’re going camping while your girlfriend has mysteriously disappeared?”

“She hasn't mysteriously disappeared,” said Rolf. “She’s doing her work at the Mervillage. I’m sure she’s fine.”

“You’re not worried at all?” demanded Romilda.

“I know you didn’t mean it like this, but something Luna’s helped me understand is that magical folk tend to have a really other-ing view of Merpeople, like everyone assuming that Luna isn’t safe when she’s visiting the Mervillage. We wouldn’t think this if she was off to Seattle for the weekend--”

“Rolf,” Romilda said, “she is underwater. You are not dating a fish. She has never stayed the night there before. Why would she start doing that without telling any of us about it? The three of us are the people who know her best on San Juan Island and she told none of us that she was planning to stay overnight.”

“I got a text from her about an hour ago,” said Rolf, pulling out his phone. 

“Why didn’t you say that before?” Romilda grabbed the phone. Ginny, who had been watching the conversation like a tennis match, peered at the screen as well.

Luna: Hey Rolf, I’m going to be in the Murvillage for a few nights. Don’t worry about me <3 back soon. Love you.

“What the fuck is this?” asked Romilda. “You think your girlfriend doesn’t know how to spell ‘Mervillage’?”

“I hardly think there’s any reason to read too deeply into a simple typo.”

“This is pretty weird,” said Ginny. “And it doesn’t really sound like her.”

“No offense, Ginny,” said Rolf, “but I don’t remember her ever texting you the whole time we’ve been together, so would you really know? She’s always sending off texts without re-reading them. The amount of times she’s sent the same word misspelled to me four different ways because she’s too impatient to wait and see if she’s spelled something right before she hits send...”

They heard a honk from the front yard and a new text flashed on Rolf’s phone as Ginny’s buzzed.

“Olivia’s here to get us. Are you coming, Ginny?”

“I don’t think I can,” said Ginny, looking pale. “That text makes me feel a lot more worried. It doesn’t sound like her at all.”

“It’s because I trust Luna that I’m not worried,” said Rolf. Then he grabbed a granola bar from the cupboard, and left.

“Do you think we need to, like, go look for her?” asked Romilda.

“I guess so --”

A moment later Olivia came in.

“So you’re really not coming?” Olivia asked, arms folded.

Ginny looked torn. “I really want to, but I don’t think I can. I’m worried about where Luna is. It seems really strange for her to stay away this long on a last minute trip. It doesn’t seem like the professional, responsible side of her that she always brings to her work.”

Olivia took Ginny’s hand and led her into the living room, away from Romilda.

“Earlier you agreed with me,” Olivia said. “It would mean a lot to me if you would trust my judgment, and Luna’s as well. I saw her yesterday and she was fine.”

“Maybe I can Apparate over to the campsite if she shows up,” said Ginny, pulling out her phone. “Maybe you can show it to me so I know where to go.”

“I was just really looking forward to spending some time with you tonight,” Olivia said, drawing her closer. Ginny breathed in as they hugged, inhaling Olivia’s familiar smell of lavender, laundry soap, and sun-baked strawberries. Just being in her arms, Ginny felt some of her tension melting away. 

“I wish I could come, I really do,” said Ginny. Olivia’s body stiffened beneath her hands. 

“Fine,” Olivia said and stalked out of the room. 

Chapter Text

After they heard Olivia’s truck rumble out of the drive, Ginny and Romilda started planning.

“I can’t believe that dumb fucker is just going to leave while Luna is gone,” said Romilda. “What a poor excuse for a boyfriend.”

“Where do you think we should check for her? I guess we need to go to the Mervillage.”

“Yeah, we need to check and see if she’s there.”

They went upstairs to throw their swimsuits and water sandals on, met in the hallway and Apparated directly to the wheelchair stall of the state park bathroom closest to the Mervillage. Romilda ended up with one foot in the toilet. They walked out of the stall, trying to look casual as a Muggle mom and her daughter looked askance from where they were washing their hands. 

“Can’t I rinse my foot off?” Romilda hissed, as Ginny hustled out of the bathroom.

“Your foot’s going in the Sound either way, it doesn’t make a difference,” Ginny muttered back, pulling her along.

Outside, they scurried past picnicking families, and climbed down the rocky trail to the beach. No one else was in swimsuits because the water was really too cold to swim in. On the beach, they walked until they were around a bend and out of sight of all the people, with just a few summer homes up high on the cliff watching over them. They cast Bubblehead charms and started wading in.

“The water is so fucking cold,” Romilda said.

“Would a warming charm work directly on our bodies?” asked Ginny breathlessly, who had only managed to get in up to her ankles before having to hurry back out of the water. “I didn’t know water could hurt this much.” 

“Might be worth the risk even if we catch on fire or something, I don’t think I can stand this.” Romilda said, gritting her teeth.

Luckily, it turned out warming charms did make the water bearable, if not exactly comfortable and the girls waded in a few more feet.

“Wait,” said Ginny, stopping and turning knee deep in the water. “We don’t speak Mermish. How are we going to do this?”

“Ah shit,” said Romilda. Then, “ accio phone!”

They waited for about thirty seconds before Romilda’s phone came hurtling out of the sky. 

“Oh no,” said Romilda as she tried to position herself to catch it. “Oh shit. Get it, Ginny!”

Ginny managed to grab the phone before it fell into the water. 

“Oh thank Godric. Sometimes it’s very handy to have a famous Quidditch star around,” said Romilda, as Ginny passed it to her. Romilda tapped it with her wand, muttering the Impervius charm.

“So, what’s your plan with that?” said Ginny as they continued to wade forward, the rocks slippery under her Chacos.

Romilda was tapping furiously on her phone. “Okay, this one should be fine. I’m trying to find a good picture of Luna to show them. I better download it from the cloud. I don’t imagine there’s great reception underwater.”

“Oh, okay. Good idea.”

“Yeah, let’s hope so. Let’s just dive in. I hate wading into the water  when it reaches the ol’ crotch. That icey shock is not fun.”

Ginny couldn’t argue with that. The girls dove under and swam along, looking out for the underwater pests Professor Lupin had taught them about. Romilda was having more trouble as she was trying to keep ahold of her wand and her phone which kept slipping out of her hand.

After ten or fifteen minutes they reached the village. There were twenty or so homes, with neat kelp gardens, and schools of fish roaming the town square. They apprehensively waited in the square until a bemused Merman swam up to them. Ginny and Romilda pointed at the picture on the phone and made big shrugging gestures. Ginny looked at the picture too, with a twinge of jealousy. It was Luna and Romilda in town, both holding big melting ice cream cones. They had their arms around each other and were caught mid-laugh. Why hadn’t they invited Ginny? Had she been off with Olivia?

The Merman looked them in the eye and held up one webbed finger and swam off. 

“Maybe he’s gone to get her,” said Romilda.

He returned a few minutes later with a young Mermaid.

“I speak little words of human language,” she said in a strange quavering accent. “She is not here. She not here since two days.”

Ginny’s heart dropped into her stomach.

“If she comes, will you tell her we’re looking for her?” Romilda asked.

“Yes,” said the Mermaid, although Ginny was not certain she understood. 

“Thank you.”

“Alright, we need to get out of here,” said Romilda as they swam away. “If we keep the Bubblehead charms in place we can Apparate straight to the water outside of Friday Harbor and go look for her in town.”

“Sounds like a plan,” said Ginny. She was glad Romilda was there to keep coming up with next steps for their search. If Luna wasn’t at the Mervillage, where could she be?

The plan to Apparate into the water did work at keeping them hidden from Muggle eyes, but as they waded out of the water, they both realized the flaw in the plan. 

“Oh, shit,” said Romilda. “I forgot about the whole clothes thing.”

While neither of their swimsuits were particularly scandalous, and it wasn’t completely unusual to see people wandering around in bathing suits in an island village, they still looked strange walking into town dripping wet, without even a towel. A ferry had just arrived and there were lots of passengers disembarking to give them strange looks.

“Not a great time to have such a nice rack,” Romilda said, frowning down at her chest. “It’s all well and good for the tomboys among us,” she added, looking at Ginny’s narrow body in her sports bra and shorts style swimsuit.

“I’d rather not be in a swimsuit right now either,” Ginny said with a groan, ears reddening. “Look! That’s Olivia’s dad.”

Olivia’s dad was hustling off the ferry along with a small boy and followed by a blonde man, who was muttering urgently into his ear. He was headed straight toward them, but didn’t appear to have noticed either of them. 

“Hello Mr. Steward,” Ginny muttered, as he pushed by them.

Willard Steward appeared not to have heard her. Chuffing the boy along, he strode to a shadowy alleyway and the pair Disapparated with a crack. After they left, the blonde man headed back up onto the ferry.

“What the hell?” asked Romilda. “I’ve never seen an uglier child in my life. Who was that little kid?”

“I don’t know,” said Ginny. “I didn’t really look. I’m glad they didn’t notice us though.”

“And what’s he doing here? We know that Olivia just left to go camping, so he’s not visiting her.”

“Maybe he’s house sitting?”

“She doesn’t have any pets, does she?”

“No.”

“I think you should get over to her house and see what’s going on. I’ll go take a peek into the grocery store and cafe and places like that, then I’ll pop over.”

“How is me going to Olivia’s house going to help Luna?” asked Ginny.

“It’s suspicious and we have no other leads,” said Romilda impatiently. “Now get going!”

Ginny Apparated to a field a few blocks away from Olivia’s house. She Disillusioned herself and crept up to the house, feeling ridiculous and quite nervous at the same time. Peering into a window she could see Willard sitting on a couch in the living room. The child seemed to be folding laundry. Ginny tapped her temple with her wand, doing the binocular spell she used for birdwatching and looked again. It wasn’t a child, but a house elf wearing a baseball hat. But what were they doing? 

There was a loud crack next to her as Romilda appeared, looking slightly transparent from a Disillusionment charm. They both dropped to the ground.

Ginny cast a quick Muffliato spell and then hissed, “Why did you Apparate directly here, dummy?”

“I didn’t remember where her house was exactly,” said Romilda. “Plus, I’m invisible.”

“You definitely aren’t,” said Ginny.

“Oh pish posh. So what are they doing in there?”

“I’m not sure,” Ginny said, carefully raising her head up again to peek inside. “Oh, he’s on the phone now.

At that moment, Romilda’s phone started buzzing in her hand.

“Oops, let me reject this,” she muttered. “Wait, it’s Hermione? I didn’t realize she had my number.”

Ginny grabbed the phone and army-crawled behind a bigleaf maple tree next to the house. Romilda followed and put her ear next to Ginny’s to hear.

“Hermione, it’s me,” Ginny whispered.

“Ginny, I’ve been trying to call you! I called Charlie and he said you were out with Romilda and gave me her number. Did you use your old DA galleon?”

“What? No. It’s under my bed at the Burrow. I gotta go, I’m in the middle of something--”

“I just got a message on mine that says ‘my desk Zachary Wheeler.”

“Oh, shit! Do you think it could’ve been Luna?”

“I know she keeps her galleon with her. I just saw it when I was visiting. Is something going on with her? She’s not picking up her phone either--”

“Okay, thanks Hermione. I gotta go,” Ginny whispered.

“Wait, what does it mean?”

Ginny hung up. “Romilda, let’s go back to the house--”

A door slammed.

“Uh oh,” said Romilda, pointing at Willard Steward as he marched toward them, pointing his wand, trying to stun them with, “Stupe--.

They both Disapparated with a bang

“Romilda! Where are you?” Ginny shouted, panicked, when she arrived in Luna’s room a moment later, alone. “ROMILDA?”

“Hold your horses,” came a voice from down below. “I’m just downstairs!”

Romilda came puffing up the staircase, “How was I supposed to know which room we were going to?”

“Okay, let’s look at her desk,” Ginny said, whirling around. There was the note from Kingsley saying the name of the blond man who had been by the nesting site: Zachary Wheeler, as well as the contact information for Captain Hoggweather. Next to it, lay a swirling vial of memory.

“She didn’t tell me that Kingsley wrote back, the silly twit,” said Romilda as they read the letter, Ginny holding the vial that had been lying next to it.

“Do you have a Pensieve? Does anyone?” asked Ginny.

“I don’t,” said Romilda. “Maybe Margaret or Maude, they seem like the type.”

“What type?” asked Ginny as they pounded down the hallway to Margaret’s room.

“Oh, I don’t know. Mushy girly-girls. Like they want to watch the stars and write in their diary. Stuff like that.”

“That doesn’t even make any sense,” Ginny muttered as she knocked on Margaret’s door. No one answered.

Terry came out of his room. “What’s all the ruckus?” he said, hair ruffled. “I was napping.”

“Oh shut up, Terry,” said Romilda. “We’re busy.”

“Unless you have a Pensieve?” Ginny added.

“No--”

“What are you guys doing banging around up here and shouting?” asked Charlie, as he climbed up the stairs. “Did Hermione ever get a hold of you, Ginny?”

“Charlie, do you have a Pensieve?”

“Yes, Aunt Florence has one that she said I could use, so I took it down to my office. It’s useful for fleshing out my notes on the dragons.”

Ginny and Romilda pushed past him and thundered down the stairs into his office.

“Hang on, there’s some memories in there. A bit private,” Charlie said, hurrying after them.

“No one wants to see your snogging memories, Charlie,” Ginny called back..

“We’re trying to find Luna,” Romilda said as she and Charlie entered his office a few steps behind Ginny.

“I thought she was at the Mervillage,” said Charlie.

“She’s been abducted by Olivia’s evil forces,” said Romilda. 

Ginny spared a moment to give her a dirty look as she coaxed the memory out of the vial into the Pensieve.

“What do you mean?” Charlie asked. “Ginny’s friend, Olivia?”

The three of them toppled in and watched Luna’s memory from the beach, following Luna as she confronted Zachary Wheeler at the dragon nesting site.

“We just saw that blond guy at the ferry! He was wearing the ferry worker uniform! Talking to Olivia’s dad!” shouted Romilda after they were out of the Pensieve. Terry had wandered into the office.

“That guy was very rude when I came up the wrong street for the ferry line,” said Charlie. 

“Were you trying to cut in line?” asked Terry suspiciously. “People are always trying to act all innocent when they cut the ferry line. It’s actually illegal.”

“I wasn’t trying to cut in line, I just wasn’t sure where to go,” said Charlie, grumpily.

“Okay,” Ginny said. “Charlie, find out the address of Zachary Wheeler. I’m going to head down to the ferry terminal and try to find him.” 

Ginny waved her wand and a sweatshirt and her phone sailed over to her.

“I’m coming with you,” said Romilda, grabbing a sweater of Charlie’s off the back of his office chair.

“What will you do if you find him?” asked Charlie, as the girls threw their respective tops over their still-damp bathing suits. 

“I guess I’ll find out when it happens,” Ginny said, grabbing Romilda’s hand and Disapparating before her brother could ask further questions.

---

Luna woke up lying on a couch. It wasn’t terribly uncomfortable besides her headache which reminded her of an old upstairs neighbor who practiced the drums day and night, but inside her head. When she tried to move she found that couldn’t.

“You’re in a full body-bind curse, love,” said the deep voice from earlier. “That’s what you British people call people: ‘love.’ It’s cute.”

Luna couldn’t turn her head, but assumed that it must be Zachary Wheeler.

“I’ll undo it for a bit so you can go to the bathroom,” he said. “I’m not interested in being some freaky torturer-kidnapper-guy. I just need to keep you here for a little bit and then I’m going to let you go.”

Luna, who couldn’t respond, tried to evaluate her body. She could feel that her little dry bag was still wrapped around her waist, under her t-shirt. It was about as big as a coin purse, so maybe the man hadn’t noticed it, or maybe he had looked in it and only seen the decoy items. 

“Okay, so I’m going to let you go to the bathroom now,” he said, waving his wand. “No funny business, no trying to escape.”

Luna felt her body relax out of the stiff board-like position she had been in. She got up warily, and followed his gesture to the bathroom. It was indeed Zachary Wheeler who had taken her. 

She closed the door most of the way, without quite shutting it, so as not to give her captor any reason to complain. The bathroom was small with a couple of the light bulbs along the mirror burned out. There was a cat’s litter box in the corner, and gravelly litter on the floor tiles. There was a trash can overflowing with toilet paper tubes. In short, it looked like a lot of the bathrooms of single men she had known in her undergraduate days. 

Once she was out of sight, she turned on heel, desperately thinking ‘Destination, Determination, Deliberation,’ picturing Aunt Florence’s house fervently. But nothing happened. Figuring that Olivia or Zachary must have warded against Apparition she sat down on the toilet, and reached into her dry bag. She got out her DA galleon and wand and carefully tapping the galleon she whispered, “my desk Zachary Wheeler.” She stowed the galleon away, tapped her waist bag with a nonverbal Disillusionment charm and then the top of her own head. She looked in the mirror. Recent events had not taken away her knack for the charm, she was practically invisible, besides a few heat like shimmers when she moved quickly. She moved to the door and looked out. 

Luna could see the whole studio apartment from her vantage point. It was small and messy, with lots of shoes and dirty clothes and cat toys on the floor. There were dishes in the sink and an overflowing laundry hamper on one side of the unmade bed. Zachary was sitting on the armchair next to the couch in the small living room area. He was looking at his phone. The front door was about a foot behind Zachary. The cat was sitting on the back of the couch. 

Luna pointed her wand at Zachary and attempted a nonverbal stunning charm. She watched the small red sparks bounce right off Zachary, so he was probably wearing a magic-repelling outfit. Luckily, he didn’t seem to notice and continued to scroll on his phone. 

Luna looked at the cat for a few moments, thinking. She cast a beam of light near the cat, who got up and followed it, trying to grab it. Luna pointed her wand at the bookshelf near the kitchen, sending a beam of light like a laser pointer at the overstuffed shelves. The cat pounced and with a crash an avalanche of DVDs, bobble-headed collectible action figures, mail, and other junk cascaded onto the floor. Luna moved quickly to the front door, jamming her wand into her bag, as Zachary got up to go see the mess. She had opened the door and was stepping out when Zachary cried, “Petrificus totalus!”

Luna hit the ground, still invisible, knocking her head against the door as she fell. 

“I told you not to leave! Where were you keeping an invisibility cloak?” He reached down grasping her bare arm as he tried to pluck off the cloak. “Damn, you do a good what-do-you-call it charm. The thing that makes you hard to see. Ugh, what is that called?”

He hauled her onto the couch, and flopped her down.

“You’re still really heavy, even when you’re invisible,” he said. Luna could hear him rustling around over by the bookshelf. “Hmm, now where is that textbook? I think we learned those charms in eleventh grade..”

----

Down at the ferry dock, the girls marched over to the office.

“While we’re down here maybe we should grab some Monistat for the yeast infections we’re getting in these wet bathing suits,” Romilda said looking over her shoulder in the direction of the drug store.

“Shut it, Vane,” Ginny said, grabbing her hand and dragging her along.

They hurtled through the door and almost crashed into the counter. Staffing the information booth, was an older woman paging through a mass-market romance novel. 

“Is Zachary Wheeler working here today?” Ginny asked without preamble.

“All tickets from Anacortes are round-trip, you don’t need to buy another,” she said without looking up from her book. 

“We were actually asking about Zachary Wheeler,” said Romilda.

The lady looked up and blinked at them from behind her red plastic reading glasses, eyes magnified. “Zachary Wheeler?”

“I’m a friend of his,” said Romilda. “His phone is going straight to voicemail and his mom called me and sent me here because she really needs to speak with him.”

“Well,” said the woman, looking over to her computer and tapping around on the keyboard. “It looks like he’s not on a shift right now.”

“Do you have his address there?” asked Romilda.

“I don’t think that would be appropriate to hand out,” said the woman, narrowing her eyes.

“Oh God,” Romilda said, pulling her hair fretfully. “I haven’t visited him here before. I came all the way from, um, Marysville for his mom!”

The woman continued to look doubtful.

Romilda slapped both hands onto the counter and spoke in an urgent whisper. “His parents just got into a car accident and the car exploded! The wheels fell right off! 

The woman blinked a few more times, but in a more startled fashion.

“The doctors aren’t sure his dad is going to make it! His head was on fire!”

“Okay, okay,” said the woman holding up her hands in surrender. She clicked around for a moment before writing the address down on a slip of paper.

Once they had it in hand, Ginny and Romilda hustled off before the woman could ask more questions.

“We really should have taken the time to put pants on,” Ginny said as they hurried over to the marina bathroom. She looked over her shoulder. The information booth woman was watching them go with a look of deep uncertainty.

 Inside the empty bathroom, they barricaded themselves in the wheelchair stall, ignoring a small girl’s scolding from the sinks (“you’re supposed to only go in there if you really need it!). 

“Okay,” said Romilda, typing the address into her map app. “I’ll text the address to Charlie too, in case he hasn’t gotten it.”.

“Let’s see the street view,” Ginny said. “And hopefully if we get a strong mental picture of it, maybe we won’t splinch ourselves. Let’s go to this park a few blocks away so he doesn’t see us coming..”

They looked at the sun-drenched street on the screen and concentrated on the picture of a small playground.

“Alright,” said Romilda. “See you there.” And they both disappeared with a pop, leaving the bathroom door mysteriously locked from the inside, with no occupant.

They found each other near the monkey bars. Ginny, who was somewhat better at Disillusionment charms disguised them both. “If only Luna were here now,” Ginny said. “She’s much better at this.”

“If you hold really still I almost can’t see you,” said Romilda, encouragingly.

They crept up to the apartment. Zachary Wheeler’s corner unit was on the ground level. The window by the front door was obscured with dusty venetian blinds, so they snuck through the spidery rosemary bushes and ivy to the larger window around the corner. There they could see the man, Zachary, from Luna’s memory standing awkwardly around while Willard Steward bustled in the small kitchen, mixing something in a portable-sized cauldron. 

“Where is Luna? Maybe she’s not here..” said Romilda.

“I know a charm that George found when he and Fred were designing the Extendable Ears,” said Ginny, taking her wand out of her sweatshirt pocket and tapping her ear, then Romilda’s. They pressed closer to the glass and heard Willard Steward’s voice.

“Did you find that charm yet?” He sounded annoyed.

“No,” said Zachary. “It must be in the Grade 5 book of spells, because I’m not seeing it in Grade 6. But I’m not sure where that book is... it might be at my mom’s house... Are you sure you don’t remember the spell either?”

“No, I don’t. If your apartment wasn’t such a mess you wouldn’t have so much trouble finding what you’re looking for,” said Willard sternly. “I’ve got this potion ready, but if we don’t know where her mouth is, it’ll be harder to have her drink it. And I don’t like the idea of undoing the body-bind while she’s invisible.”

“Okay, okay.”

“So does she have her wand then? How did she get invisible in the first place?”

“I searched her for her wand,” Zachary grumbled. “She must be able to do wandless magic.”

“Or more likely you left your wand lying around.”

“Oh wait, here’s the spell,” Zachary said, waving his wand while awkwardly pronouncing the charm.

Luna flickered back into view, though still looking somewhat faded.

“We need to undo the body-bind, but we’d better tie her up first,” said Willard. 

Outside, Romilda muttered, “what should we do?”

“Let’s go in and I’ll stun them and you remove the body-bind,” said Ginny. “Let’s go now before they feed her that potion and get rid of her memory.”

“Alohomora,” Romilda whispered at the chipped doorknob, before twisting it. “It didn’t work!”

“Okay, move out of the way,” Ginny whispered. 

“What are you going to do--”

“Confringo!” and the door exploded in woody chunks.

“Way to overdo it,” Romilda muttered. 

Willard and Zachary turned around, wands drawn. Luna was lying on the couch with cords around her wrists and ankles. 

“Stupefy,” the men shouted practically in unison. Ginny and Romilda both cast shield charms. Ginny tried to stun Willard, and the charm bounced uselessly off of him. Romilda performed the bodybind counter-curse on Luna, though she was still physically tied, hand and foot.

“They’ve got some kind of protective clothing on, warded against spells” Luna said as Romilda started untying her, Ginny distracting the men by charming all the dirty clothes on the ground to start flying around and wrapping around their faces. 

Willard slashed through the gym shorts obscuring his face with a jab of his wand. Zachary was still trying to untie several stinky-looking t-shirts from around his eyes.

“You girls don’t know who you’re messing with,” Willard said, starting a complicated waving pattern with his wand. “I was a California state finalist in the national dueling competition in my day.” He gave a final wave and long wiggling ropes came flying toward the three friends who were now standing together with their backs to the door. 

Ginny dispatched the ropes with a quick flick of her wand. Luna reached into her bag, grabbing out her own wand.

The three witches cast more spellwork and soon the entire apartment was a storm of flying objects. Sweatpants and a mangy looking fleece blanket from the couch, long cords of a video game controller and a phone charger were all tying themselves around the men. Willard was continuing to jab at the air with his wand, managing to slash through some of Zachary’s many possessions intent on wrapping him up, but soon his arms were bound to his sides by a pleather belt and a pair of wired earbuds. 

Zachary seemed to have accepted his fate, tied up by his own flannel pajama bottoms, and when Luna had the armchair fly up behind him and knock him behind the knees so he flopped into it, he didn’t resist. Once Willard was so wrapped in Zachary’s clothes that he looked like  a caterpillar in a cocoon, Luna went over and pushed him onto the couch, took his wand out his struggling hand and went and collected Zachary’s as well.

“Do you want me to turn a fan on or anything?” Luna asked the men. “It’s kind of hot in here and I don’t know how long you’ll be here.”

The only reply was an angry, but muffled grunt from Willard.

“Try cracking open a newspaper sometime,” Romilda advised as Ginny opened the door. “Luna and Ginny have been killing and dismembering evil dark wizards such as yourselves since we were, like, fourteen.”

“I don’t know if it was like that, exactly,” Ginny said to her as they walked out of the apartment. “Okay, I’m going to call Charlie.”

Chapter Text

Luna, Romilda, and Ginny regrouped outside of the apartment. 

Luna leaned against a tree, feeling light-headed and weak from being stunned and in a body-bind for the past twenty hours. She was trying to think. What had been happening right before she ended up here? She knew it was something important, but what…

Ginny walked a few feet away to make her phone call. 

“I just don’t understand what these guys are doing here,” Romilda said to Luna, gesturing back to the apartment. “This blonde guy is the same guy who was near the dragon nesting site, right?”

“Yes --”

“And he’s in cahoots with Olivia’s dad? Oh, I knew there was something about that girl I couldn’t trust,” Romilda said, sounding pleased. 

“Get Hoggweather, ASAP,” Ginny was shouting into the phone. “It stands for as soon as possible. Honestly, Charlie!  It’s the phone number I gave you right before we left! I’m going to text you the address, there’s some criminals for him to come apprehend.”

As Ginny ended the call, she looked over at Luna, leaning against the tree. She looked pale, and her wrists had faint red marks from the ropes.

“Hi,” Ginny said, one hand against the trunk of the tree. “Are you --”

And Luna collapsed against Ginny’s chest before she could finish the thought and Ginny held her tightly in her arms.

Romilda waited a respectful five seconds before she said, “Alright, alright, let’s keep it moving. What’s the plan, Ginevra? Luna? Do we need to go do a citizen’s arrest on Olivia?”

“Let’s think about what we know,” Ginny said, reluctantly letting go of Luna, but keeping one arm around her waist. “We know at least Olivia’s dad is working with Zachary Wheeler. Luna, how did they get you?”

Luna pursed her lips, her cornflower blue eyes “I think --- I was coming back up from the Mervillage. I saw Olivia pull her truck onto the ferry, but then she left it there. I went onto the ferry to see why she was leaving the car -- oh I saw Olivia give the blonde guy the keys, or she must have because then Olivia got off the ferry. I wanted to see what was going on. So I followed them on, and when I was looking at the truck, then that’s when they must have stunned me.”

“Huh,” said Romilda.

“And it smelled, it didn’t smell like strawberry,” said Luna. “It smelled almost like -- banana! 

“Bananas? Do you think she left a banana in the truck cab? They can smell pretty strong--” said Ginny..

“No,” said Luna, “I think they’re smuggling Salish Sea Dragon poison.”

“And maybe even the dragons themselves,” Romilda said, her eyes widening. “We know that their tracking data is all over the place. If Olivia is selling them as pets on the black market, they could be going anywhere! And she could be tampering with their GPS systems to cover it up!”

“Ginny, what do you think? Where is Olivia?” asked Luna.

Ginny was still standing beside them, but her arm had dropped from Luna and her eyes were glazed.

“What’s going on with you, Weasley?” Romilda demanded.

Ginny blinked a few times, and rubbed her eyes. “Come on guys, I don’t think Olivia would be illegally smuggling dragons. There must be something else going on.”

“Weasley, I don’t mean to be rude, but you need to wake up! We need to go find Olivia and kick her ass.”

“We shouldn’t actually be kicking her--” Luna began.

“It’s just a turn of phrase! Can you keep up with my vernacular, please?”

“Okay, don’t actually kick her except in self-defense,” said Luna.

“I don’t think you should come, Luna. You’re all tired out from all this bullshit that’s been going on,” Romilda said, looking at her rumpled and pale friend. “Let me and Ginny handle this one. Unless you’re too lovestruck to do some vigilante justice?” she added to Ginny.

“No, we’d better go see what’s going on,” Ginny said. “So she and Rolf are camping on an island, I think--”

“Rolf is with her?” Luna asked, alarmed.

“Yeah, I think so,” Ginny said. “She invited both of us to go camping with her--”

“To draw you away from Luna while Luna was going to be Obliviated by Olivia’s dad!” Romilda yelled.

Ginny thought for a moment, gazing at Luna, who was unrolling her dry bag. A determined look came over Ginny’s face. “Yeah, you could be right. Even if you’re not, we need to go and find out what’s happening.”

“There’s that Gryffindor spirit,” Romilda said, approvingly.

“I need to go with you if she’s got Rolf,” Luna said, pulling out a small vial of bright red potion from her bag. “I’m not feeling one hundred percent, but I ordered some Pepper-Up Potion from Bartleby’s,” she explained, uncorking it. “It’s very cold underwater. I usually like to warm up with a shower or something hot to eat, but I got this in case I was ever in a rush, or hypothermic and lost my wand, or whatever.” 

She downed it one go, shivered all over, and color rushed back into her pale cheeks. “Okay, I’m feeling a little better.”

“There’s probably time to go to that coffee stand on the way--” Romilda suggested, peering at her phone. “It’s only a five minute walk from here.” 

“Shush Romilda,” Luna said as Ginny searched around on Google Maps for the campsite. Luna shivered a little.

“Be careful with that stuff,” Romilda said. “Hannah Abbott got addicted to that during her fifth year. It wasn’t pretty. It started with a little bout of winter blues, fatigue probably, and soon she was slurping down potion every hour. Madam Pomfrey really should have checked her iron and Vitamin D levels, maybe B 12, but these witches are always outsmarting themselves.”

“What happens if you’re addicted to Pepper-Up Potion?”

“Well, with Hannah she was mostly experiencing such terrible intestinal distress, if you ever went near the third floor bathrooms after our Transfiguration classes, let me tell you--”

“Merlin’s beard! What is that island called?” Ginny exclaimed. “Oh, wait. This is it, Stuart Island. Okay, let’s look at photos people have added and find a good apparition site.”

“So there’s no time for coffee,” Romilda clarified. “Is there time to stop by the house and finally put some pants on?”

“Nope,” said Ginny. “Luna, could you open up your dry bag?”

“Okay--”

Ginny grabbed Romilda’s phone out of her hand and dropped it unceremoniously into the bag alongside her own. Then she pulled off her sweatshirt and chucked it on the ground. 

“Let’s do side-along apparition,” Ginny said, hooking her own arms through one of Luna’s and Romilda’s.. “I don’t want us to get separated in the water.”

“In the water--”

CRACK

And soon they were all flailing around in the Puget Sound.

“Help! I’m drowning--” Romilda said. “Glub, glub..”

“Put your feet down, we’re in like four feet of water,” Ginny hissed, crouching down so only her mouth and up were out of the water. “And be quiet!”

“It’s fucking freezing in here,” remarked Romilda. 

“Do the warming charm!” said Ginny. Then in a gentler tone, she whispered the Impervius charm first on Luna, then herself, and then Romilda, poking Romilda unnecessarily with her wand.

“You’re not even good at those! I’m just as wet! And you could have told us we were going to be apparating into the ocean again. I see there was time for you to take your sweatshirt off, but not me--”

“Then do your own Impervius charm, genius--”

“Look! There they are,” Luna interrupted in an undertone, pointing a few hundred yards away, to where Olivia’s sailboat bobbed up and down, tied up to a small dock. Luna cast a big bubble around the dry bag and carefully extracted her wand, Disillusioning all three of them. 

The sun was getting lower in the sky as the three of them crept along, their sandals slipping over the big slimy rocks underwater, one of them occasionally whispering a warming charm. 

They snuck up to Rolf and Olivia’s campsite, the boat blocking their view and any faint glimmers Rolf and Olivia might see of the three witches. The water was deeper here. Ginny swam as quietly as she could around the edge of the boat, her splashing covered by the small waves.

Olivia and Rolf were sitting near a campfire. Rolf was sipping something from a mug and reading a book, while Olivia was looking at her phone, her own mug beside her. A big powder blue Dutch oven was steaming on the picnic table. Ginny swam back around to the other witches and cast a nonverbal muffling spell.

“They’re just hanging out around the campfire. What do you think we should do?” Ginny asked.

“Has Hoggweather picked up Olivia’s dad and the ferry guy yet?” Romilda replied.

Luna carefully extracted Ginny’s phone from the bag and handed it to Ginny, casting a quick Impervius charm on it. Ginny held it awkwardly above the water as she called her brother.

“Charlie, what’s the situation on Hoggweather? Come on. Okay I need you to apparate over to the address Romilda sent and see what’s going on.” She paused for a moment. “No, stay on the line.” She listened for a minute or two and then said, “yeah, yeah, we’ll be careful. Okay, tell Hoggweather that we’ll be at Stuart Island state park and just stay with him and if I text you, send him in. Okay. Bye.” 

Ginny, handed the phone back to Luna. “Okay, Hoggweather was there working on paperwork. It sounds like he’s taken them into custody based on the fact that Mr. Stewart immediately tried cursing Hoggweather when he came in the door. Charlie’s filled him in about Luna’s abduction and now they’re waiting for our signal if we need them to Apparate here.”

“Wow, it’s like we’re special agents or something,” said Romilda. “Ginny, maybe head over there and see what’s going on. Tell Olivia that you thought about it and you’ve realized she’s right, that you should trust Luna to take care of herself, blah blah. I can’t go because she doesn’t like me, and Luna can’t go because then she’ll know Luna’s escaped.”

Ginny thought for a moment. “Will you guys be okay out here?” She looked at Luna, whose cheeks were still the trademark bright pink of Pepper-Up Potion.

“We’ve got more of Luna’s potion and warming charms. We’ll be fine,” Romilda said. “I can also do a good Impervius charm, unlike some of us, so if we get tired of being wet, I can do that.”

Luna found a floating piece of seaweed and transfigured it into a life jacket, then she did the same with another, passing it to Romilda. “See, we’ll be fine, Ginny,” she said, buckling the slimy green jacket around herself, after a small struggle. “I’ve got so many warming charms going on near me, it’s like being in the bath.”

“Just need a beer and we’re all set up to catch the rest of the sunset,” Romilda added, wriggling into her own life jacket. 

“Alright,” Ginny said, giving Romilda a suspicious look. “Don’t really drink any beer. I need you guys ready if I signal.”

“What’ll the signal be?”

“Um, probably a scream or something--”

“Very subtle.”

“Okay,” Ginny said. She looked at Luna for a moment. “Be careful out here. If you don’t feel safe, if you’re still feeling bad from the curses, just apparate home.”

“What about me?” asked Romilda.

“This was your idea! You can stay here.” Ginny said. “I’m leaving now,” she added, taking her phone and wand from the bag. “See you all in a bit.”

She swam along the edge of the water, still Disillusioned, then walked up onto the beach about a quarter mile from Olivia and Rolf, and took off the Disillusionment charm behind a Douglas fir tree. She took a deep breath, forced a smile onto her face and set off down the path to their campsite.

“Hi Olivia! Hi Rolf!” Ginny called in her most cheerful voice.

“Ginny?” Olivia asked, nearly dropping the deck of cards in her hand. “You made it!” 

Behind her, Rolf looked up from his book, with a strange look on his face.

Olivia ran over to Ginny, calling, “I’m so glad you’re here,” and wrapped Ginny up in a hug, which she quickly dropped. “Wow, babe, you’re soaking wet!”

“Oh, yeah,” Ginny said. “Since I apparated here, I thought the safest way would be to apparate directly into the water, so Muggles didn’t see.”

”Probably not necessary, but I appreciate the thought,” said Olivia.

They wandered back over to the campfire, and Ginny sat down on the picnic table bench, leaning back against the tabletop.

“So, you didn’t bring anything with you, huh?” Rolf asked from his camp chair by the fire. “Not even pants? Or like a shirt.” 

He sounded unusually bitter.

“Oh,” Ginny blushed. “Well, Olivia said she’d bring my stuff along. I hope you still took my bag with you since you had it when you came to pick us up?”

“Oh, yeah, I think I threw it in,” Olivia said. She was behind Ginny, bustling around with the Dutch oven. “Did you want some soup? Or tea? We were just about to play cards, so you could join in after you eat.”

“Sure,” Ginny said.

Olivia passed her a tin bowl of potato soup and a mug of tea.

“Ah, I love this tea,” Ginny said, her nerves melting a little with a warm drink in her hands.. “Maybe you could tell me where you buy it? I don’t usually even like green tea. It’s crazy how much it smells like a marsh or a pond, but in a good way.”

“She got green tea?” Rolf asked, sounding hurt. “You told me there wasn’t any.”

“What kind are you drinking?” Ginny asked politely.

“I think it’s chamomile.”

Olivia looked up from her phone where she was sitting in the other camp chair. “Green, chamomile, I don’t know. I just have a couple of bags of tea in my camping stuff and you get what you get.”

“Mine was loose leaf, I thought,” Rolf said, peering into his cup.

“Wow, even this soup tastes sort of marshy,” Ginny said, growing more enthusiastic. “It’s like I’m back in my parents’ backyard with Ron, George ... Fred.” She felt much warmer eating the soup and drinking the tea, even in just her wet bathing suit. Thinking about Fred felt more nostalgic than usual, and less sad. 

“Why is that good to you?” Rolf asked, scooting his camp chair closer to Olivia’s. “Potato soup shouldn’t taste like a marsh, and neither should tea. Maybe it’s you who tastes like marsh and you’re just smelling all the seaweed caught up in your hair.”

Olivia, who had been looking at her phone again, turned off the screen and placed it in the cupholder of her camping chair. “Ginny looks beautiful no matter how much seaweed is caught in her hair.” 

“Is something wrong?” Ginny asked, feeling unexpectedly protective of Olivia, given the mission she had been sent on. The details of said mission seemed to be fading rapidly from her mind. “You looked worried when you were looking at your phone.” 

“Oh, nothing to worry about, babe,” Olivia said, leaning forward and stroking Ginny’s cheek. Ginny reached up and held Olivia’s hand over hers. It was so warm against her sea-cold skin.

“I didn’t think you were coming, Ginny,” said Rolf.

“Well,” Ginny said, letting go of Olivia’s hand with some reluctance, trying to remember what her story was and why she was here. “I thought about what you all said -- and you’re right -- Luna can take care of herself. I wouldn’t want to miss a camping trip just to worry over nothing.”

“Exactly,” Olivia said.

Ginny ate quietly for a few minutes. Olivia paced around holding her phone up to the sky.

Ginny’s own phone buzzed and she glanced down to see a message from Charlie. She swiped it away. Why was he messaging her? Ginny couldn’t remember. Why was she just wearing a bathing suit? Where were her clothes? She found that she didn’t really care. She felt warm from the inside out. 

She ate a few more bites of soup. Alongside that marshy taste, there was a sweet flavor, almost like bergamot. It was unexpected, but strangely delicious. Ginny wasn’t surprised that an expert potioneer like Olivia could also be such an experimental cook. Olivia was so multi-talented, she thought dreamily, stirring the soup in her bowl.

Ginny knew she had come here with an ulterior motive, but as she sat staring into the fire, eating the soup, the sky slowly darkening, she couldn’t quite remember what it was. Looking up at Olivia who was once again looking at her phone with an annoyed look on her face and pacing the campground, holding it up in different spots, Ginny felt deep affection blossoming in her chest. Rolf read his book in a rather sulky silence, shooting Ginny sidelong glances every now and then. 

Olivia eventually decided they should get on with their card game. She summoned a big bottle of sangria from her cooler on the boat and everyone arranged themselves at the picnic table, a jar of fire illuminating the cards.

Olivia sat down very close to Ginny, setting her hand on Ginny’s bare thigh. Ginny could hardly think of anything besides that tan hand resting across her leg. Rolf, across the table, kept staring at Olivia with a slightly dead-eyed intensity. 

“Even the sangria tastes marshy,” Ginny laughed. “Maybe I am covered in seaweed.”

“It literally doesn’t taste marshy. At all,” said Rolf, rolling his eyes. “It tastes like lavender, kind of like in the lemonade we used to make in the summers with my dad.”

Ginny tasted it thoughtfully. “No, I’m not really getting that note…”

“Texas Hold ‘Em?” Olivia suggested, her face glowing in the firelight.

“There’s another way to play poker,” Rolf said, his eyes dark.

“Now, Rolf, that would be very naughty. I’m in a relationship now, isn’t that right, Ginny?”

Olivia’s hand wandered further up Ginny’s leg.

“Um--” Ginny said. 

“Unless you think that it might be fun?” Olivia whispered against Ginny’s ear, her hand now at Ginny’s waist. “But then again, you’re not wearing much clothing as it is, so you might lose pretty fast.”

Ginny closed her eyes. Blood was pounding everywhere, her temples, her hands, her heart, lower still. 

“Do you want to ante up?” Olivia asked, reaching behind Ginny’s back and slowly beginning to unfasten her bathing suit top.

Rolf was staring at them in amazement, his shirt already off and crumpled on the table, then his eyes looked somewhere behind them and widened further still.

“Care to explain this?” Luna asked from somewhere behind them. Olivia’s hands stilled.

Chapter Text

Luna and Romilda were standing at the edge of the campsite, both wands glowing, holding a trap with a live Salish Sea Dragon inside. 

“How interesting that this magical trap containing a magical creature was found just a few hundred feet away from your boat, Olivia,” said Romilda. 

“Oh, hi guys,” Olivia said, as though she hadn’t heard. “You’re camping too? Come join us!”

“So, what’s going on here?” Romilda asked, swinging onto the picnic bench. “I see you’re taking off Weasley’s top and Luna’s boyfriend is half naked.”

Luna sat down beside Rolf, who was looking between Luna and Olivia as though he was in a nightmare. Luna picked up his large tumbler of sangria and smelled it, before passing it to Romilda, exchanging a dark look.

“Rolf, what are you doing here?” Luna asked, turning to him again.

“We’re just camping,” Rolf grumbled, grabbing his glass of sangria back from Luna and downing the rest defiantly. 

“Maybe we’re getting a little carried away here,” Olivia said. “We’ve had a lot to drink.”

Ginny was having some trouble focusing her eyes. She looked at Luna, whose hair was lit up like a halo in the flicker of the campfire. There seemed to be glimmers floating just behind her. Ginny wondered, vaguely, if they were fairies or sprites, following Luna around like usual. 

“You’re getting these guys all hopped up on love potion and Godric knows what else, and then you’re getting them naked. Very interesting. Very consensual, I’m sure.” Romilda said, now taking Ginny’s glass of sangria away from her.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Romilda,” Olivia said, shuffling the cards. “We’re just camping and getting a little silly. Do you want anything to drink?”

Rolf now appeared to be dozing off at the table. Luna took his wrist in her hand and checked his pulse.

“Is he alright?” Ginny asked, rubbing her eyes as she tried to focus.

“I guess so...” said Luna, as Rolf began to snore, his forehead resting on the picnic table.

Romilda pulled out her phone and backed away from the campfire and over toward where the waves lapped over the rocky ledge of the shore. 

“What are you doing, Romilda?” Olivia asked, getting up and following Romilda, her voice dangerously quiet, barely audible over the tide.

“I’m trying to text Charlie,” Romilda said. “He’s with the captain of Magical Law Enforcement right now, so maybe it’s best if you just come with us and save yourself the embarrassment of being arrested.”

“What can you prove, Romilda?” Olivia said, walking up closer, as Romilda continued to back away, along the rock edge. “That you found some little dragon in a cage? I think that trap probably belongs to Charlie Weasley. I wonder if he’s been doing some smuggling to bolster his measly adjunct salary. Tenure is difficult to come by these days, I hear. I wouldn’t be surprised if he needs a bit of help making ends meet.”

Luna got up from the table and approached the other witches. Ginny got up on unsteady legs and followed behind her. There was something still hovering in the air around Luna, but what was it? Ginny could see the glimmers reflected in the water.

“Whatever, Olivia,” Romilda said, sliding her phone back into her pocket. “I think there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that it’s you and your dad smuggling the dragons.”

“There’s no signal out here, anyway,” Olivia said. 

The glimmers behind Luna suddenly materialized into a figure, and Daniel Ward, Maude’s erstwhile lover and their cashier at Bartleby’s, was suddenly behind Luna, holding her arms behind her back, his wand pointing directly at her head. 

---

“Hi girls,” Daniel said, smiling into the shocked faces of Romilda and Ginny. “Here’s the deal: Olivia’s going to Obliviate each of you, and if anyone causes trouble, who knows what’ll happen to Blondie here?”

Seeing Luna held tightly in the arms of this man, Ginny felt the last cobwebs clear from her brain. Everything in her was telling her to tackle this guy like she practiced over and over at Quidditch practice.

“Chill, Ginny,” Romilda whispered, sensing her intentions. “We need to stay calm.” 

“Luna’s not the only one who can do a Disillusionment charm,” Olivia said. “Though the way you all carry on about her, it’s probably a shock. Alright now, wands please. Even you, babe,” Olivia said, holding out her hand and collecting Romilda and Ginny’s wand. 

“Where’s yours, Loony?” Olivia asked Luna, who was hanging limply in Daniel’s hold. “Is it in this little bag you’ve always got?” She unrolled the dry bag and reached inside, extracting a pack of gum and a crumpled up wad. “Ew, what is this? Ugh, I forgot that you only keep nasty old tissues in here.” Olivia dropped it on the ground and rubbed her hand on her pants. “I’m not surprised that you’ve got some immune issues, with the way you eat. I never really get sick because of the immune-supporting and anti-inflammatory properties of the food I eat....” 

Olivia put the wands in her pocket, and reached for her own. 

“So, you’d Obliviate your own girlfriend?” Romilda asked. “And let her forget all about these charming ways about you?”

Ginny, who seemed mostly out of the fog of the love potion still looked stunned by this betrayal. Olivia didn’t seem to notice.

“From past experience, my obliviation charm tends to knock out the past seventy-two hours completely, and make the last week or two fuzzy,” Olivia said, cocking her head. “But with all the substances Ginny’s on, I guess it could affect further back,” she seemed to be thinking out loud at this point. “My dad has an interesting potion that can target more specific memories, so I could stun Ginny and use that so I don’t risk her forgetting our whole relationship…I do like Ginny and, frankly, engagement has been way up on Tiktok and my Instagram and that leads to more potion sales.”

“The potions that you’re repackaging--” Luna began, before being whacked on the head by Daniel’s wand. “Shut it,” he said..

“It doesn’t really matter, now, does it?” Olivia said. “Yes, you bunch of geniuses. We’re reselling the potions. These fucking boomers at Bartleby’s can hardly sell a potion to save their life. My family has been major stock-holders for decades and my dad’s been dumping way too much money in that musty old store for years. My brother had to take out student loans! Ever since the laws on prescription potions got loosened five years ago, my dad thought that Bartleby’s would skyrocket. But these dum-dums won’t even make an online store, let alone an Instagram. I offered to put up a job posting for a social media manager, but they don’t even have an email address! These old wizards think that Muggle technology can’t mix with a potioneering company.”

“So you’ve got Daniel cooking the books and sending potions for you to resell on your online store?” Romilda guessed. “And I guess that ferry guy is probably in on this somehow?”

Olivia shrugged. “Not all potions can travel via Floo or apparition. Too unstable. Sometimes you need a guy in the travel business.”

“So what’s going on with the dragons?” Ginny asked, her voice shaking, ears turning red. “My brother is really worried that something horrible is happening to them! He might get in trouble since they’re a protected species and he and our group are the only wizards licensed to interact with them on the island! He’s the one who everyone will suspect! Don’t you care at all?”

“Babe, I wish it didn’t have to be this way. Part of my deal with Daniel is that I supply the Sea Dragon poison, so he can get the credit at Bartleby’s. The one thing you can count on in that company, is that they promote the guy who can source the tricky ingredients. And if they don’t trust Daniel, then he can’t help me.”

“Okay, Olivia, I don’t think we need to tell them every single detail here,” Daniel said, rearranging his hold on Luna, who was now making a series of strange sounds, like an owl hooting almost. “Shut up, you absolute freak,” he added, giving Luna a shake.

“Whatever, they’re not going to remember this for long. And it’s good for me to let it out,” Olivia said, after sparing a disdainful glance at Luna who had let out one last hoot. “I don’t want to build my relationship with Ginny on lies, after all.”

“How do the people at Bartleby’s not notice all the missing potions?” Ginny asked.

“It’s a really simple charm to create a visual duplicate. The only issue is that the potions don’t work,” Olivia said, walking along the water’s edge. “So, anyway, moving on: how long have you been suspecting me of this potion and dragon scheme? Just since Luna went missing?”

Ginny and Romilda exchanged a glance.

“There’s a lot of loose ends to tie up here. Really, I don’t think anyone would be surprised if Luna here drowned,” Olivia said, considering Luna, and pacing along the rocky shore. “Maybe that’s why no one’s seen her for a few days? I can’t imagine doing something as reckless as studying creatures as violent as merpeople, especially when I doubt Luna could reliably cast the correct charms to stay underwater or protect herself--”

“What do we do?” Romilda hissed at Ginny. “Push her in?”

“Maybe--”

But before Romilda or Ginny could do anything, a pair of webbed greenish hands grabbed Olivia around the ankles and she was pulled into the water with a loud splash. 

Daniel had kept his wits about him enough to hang on to Luna, though he did look rather surprised. Ginny, without taking a moment to second-guess herself, tackled him like the Muggle football coach consultant had shown the team last year and knocked his wand, though not Luna, right out his hands, and the three of them tumbled into the water after Olivia. 

Ginny gasped and inhaled some air along with cold, salty water as the three of them crashed into the sea. She had lost her grip on Daniel and the momentum of her running tackle catapulted her deep into the dark water, and the current seemed intent on pulling her further away. 

The sudden watery quiet disoriented her. Her warming charms had worn off and the water was so cold it was painful. Which way was up? Every direction was pitch black. Kelp and seaweed and who knows what other slimy things threatened to wrap around her legs. She gave the best kick she could off of a barnacle-covered rock and struggled to the surface of the water. 

All around her, the night sky, and the spiky outlines of pines on the islands. She could see the distant glow of the campfire, but waves kept crashing over her head, filling her mouth and nose with cold salt water and the current relentlessly pushed her further from the shore. If she had her wand she could do a Bubblehead charm, or a warming charm, she could transfigure something into a floatation device like Luna did earlier. But that wand was either in Olivia’s back pocket (wherever she was now), or at the bottom of the sea floor.

Over the sound of the waves crashing in her ears she could hear Romilda’s voice in the distance shouting their names, and Charlie’s voice too, their voices getting fainter as she tried to stay afloat, and found herself ever farther from the campfire. 

How could she keep swimming when her whole body was freezing? Ginny could hardly find the energy to keep her eyes open, and why bother when so much ocean water was constantly being splashed into them? 

The waves were ceaselessly pushing her head under water, and each time she came struggling back to the surface, she inhaled more sea water, sharp and caustic in her nose, the faint glow of the campfire further and further away.

Then: a warm arm around her waist, a bubble of super-oxygenated air around her head, a tap with a wand, and her skin burned as it warmed up. She forced her eyes open again, Luna was bobbing in the water next to her, a slimy green life jacket on, tapping her wand along Ginny’s arm doing mild warming charms. Ginny felt her hand being taken by a much cooler hand, by someone whose face was concealed by the choppy waves, and she and Luna were being towed back to shore. Luna gave a few half-hearted paddles, but she also seemed to be being propelled by an unseen swimmer beneath the waves. 

At the rocky edge, Romilda and Charlie were beckoning encouragingly from a few feet up, reaching their hands down to help. Ginny scrambled up onto the shore, with Charlie and Romilda grabbing her hands and the unseen person pushing helpfully on her rear end. Normally, Ginny wouldn’t tolerate a random person shoving on her butt, but right now, her limbs felt like noodles and her dignity was still out in the water. 

Supported by Charlie, Ginny looked down the little cliff into the water where Luna was speaking with two Merpeople. As though feeling Ginny’s eyes on her, Luna looked up and met Ginny’s gaze. She said one last thing and then climbed up and into Ginny’s arms. Ginny clung to her for a few long minutes, shivering, before she heard Olivia’s voice behind them. 

“Ginny! You’re okay! I thought you might have drowned.”

By the campfire, Olivia and Daniel were seated in camping chairs, with their arms and legs bound by spell-casted ropes. Olivia had tears running down her face as she gazed soulfully at Ginny. 

A man, presumably Detective Hoggweather, sat in another camping chair slowly writing on a clipboard. Charlie and Romilda helped Ginny and Luna stagger toward spots around the picnic table. Rolf was still sleeping soundly right in the middle. 

“So, Hoggweather, what’s our status here?” Romilda asked.

“I’ve got my boys working on the emergency search warrant. These two --” gesturing toward Olivia and Daniel, “--are under arrest for threatening bodily harm with wands and presumably for nonconsensual potion poisoning. I’m going to take these young people down to the county jail, and we’ll set the bail.”

“Please, Officer,” Olivia said, smiling bravely at Hoggweather. “This has all been a dreadful mistake. My friend Romilda here accidentally got into my confusion potions, the ones that I sell at the Sunday market, thinking they were Pepper-Up Potion, and Charlie, unfortunately and rather unprofessionally, has a bit of a crush on her, even though she’s his student--.”

“Save it, sister,” Hoggweather said, glancing at his own phone. “My boys have just discovered five Salish Sea Dragons on your property, and that’s another felony charge.”

“Also, you can’t sell confusion potions on the public marketplace, dumbass,” Romilda pointed out, gesturing to her phone. “They’re a Schedule II controlled substance, I literally just Googled it.”

Chapter Text

Hoggweather hauled a resigned Daniel and a still-protesting Olivia off to the county jail by side-along apparition. 

“Ginny, maybe you’d better let one of us take you back home. You don’t seem in any state to apparate. It seems like whatever Olivia was feeding you was really heavily spiked with love potion and confusion potion,” Romilda said, unusually gently. 

Charlie hauled the sleeping Rolf over his shoulder. “I can come back and get anyone who wants me to,” he said. “I’m going to get this guy out of here.”

Charlie disappeared with a crack.

The three women stood in the campground. The remnants of the campfire Charlie had extinguished still smoldered. It was a clear night. Ginny looked up at the thousands of glittering stars and the Milky Way. She had gotten used to seeing only a few of the very brightest stars since she had started living in London. 

“Did you find out where your wands ended up?” Luna asked, opening her roll-top bag and checking the contents. 

Romilda nudged Ginny with her wand. “Yeah. Here’s yours, Ginny. Charlie and Hoggweather got here right after you all went careening into the water. Luna’s friend, the merperson who originally pulled her in, brought Olivia back just after Charlie and Hoggweather showed up. The wands had fallen out of her pocket, so Charlie got them back with some summoning charms.”

After apparating home, Ginny peeled off her wet bathing suit and crawled into dry, warm Holyhead Harpies sweats. Downstairs, she found Romilda and Luna sharing a pot of mint tea in the breakfast nook. 

“My friend from the Mervillage detected my magical signature through the waves,” Luna explained. “She came and found Romilda and me while we were floating near the campsite, and she offered to stay close by in case I signaled for help. She was really worried after you guys came to the village and said I was missing.”

Ginny’s phone started buzzing in her pocket with a call from Hermione.

“Ginny, thank Merlin you’re alright!” Hermione’s voice came out tinnily from the speaker. “So, I’ve been researching Bartleby’s love potions, and they only sell one, called Love Potion No. 3.”

“That’s the one that fucking snake Daniel told us about when we visited their store,” said Romilda.

 “So like most love potions, it tastes different to everyone who tastes it. It generally reminds you of something safe and comforting, or depending on your mood and body when you drink it, it can also remind you of um -- more intimate encounters you’ve had,” Hermione said.

“Oooh, what did it taste like to you, Weasley?” asked Romilda.

“It tasted sort of, I don’t know, planty. Grassy or marshy.”

“Getting it on out-of-doors are you? You sly dog,” Romilda said, reaching across the table to sock Ginny in the arm.

“But anyway,” Hermione said, taking charge of the situation, even over the phone. “If you’re on it, long-term, it can sort of cause -- I wouldn’t call it brain damage exactly -- but the neural pathways of associating someone with all these positive love feelings can get deeply ingrained in your brain, and even if you stop taking the potion, you might still be -- I don’t know -- in love with them, I guess.”

“Yikes,” said Romilda.

“Do you remember if you’ve been having any other food or drinks with Olivia that tasted unusual?” Luna asked.

“I don’t think so,” said Ginny, considering. “Wait, I think there were a few drinks with the same unusual flavor I tasted at dinner, but only yesterday..”

“So even if you take this potion long-term, even if you take the antidote, you’ll still be in love with them?” asked Luna, as Charlie sidled into the room, and sat at the nook.

“Yes, antidote can only nullify any potion you’ve taken in the last few hours, and it’s most effective when drunk immediately. The problem, though, is long-term potion-damage,” said Hermione. “You all should get to the hospital and get checked out.”

“Yeah, probably,” said Luna, quietly.

Everyone was quiet for a moment.

“That’s where we’re headed next, actually,” said Charlie. “I was just on the phone with Hoggweather,” said Charlie, “and he wants Luna, Rolf and Ginny to go to the hospital, not just for your health, but also to get official recorded evidence of potion and spell damage for the criminal investigation. He’s called ahead to the Lake Washington Magical Hospital in Seattle and they’re expecting us in the emergency department. He’s on his way to escort us now.”

“Okay, I’m just going to go grab my sweater,” said Romilda, scooting across the bench. “And can I just say that I love that I’m finally wearing pants for an excursion?”

“You should go to bed,” said Charlie, reaching out his hand as though to touch Romilda’s arm, but stopping just short. “You guys must all be so tired.”

“Come on, Charlie,” Romilda said, flicking him lightly on the forehead as she passed him on her way to the stairs. “I’ve come this far, I’m not leaving the adventure now.”

Luna and Ginny wrapped up the call with Hermione and promised to update her soon, and send a message to Ron and Harry, too. 

They grabbed sweaters, their wallets, their phones and their books. Hoggweather turned up after a minute or two. Charlie went upstairs to get the barely-responsive Rolf hauled over his shoulder and then they all headed to the fireplace. 

Hoggweather went first, supporting Rolf with a spell that looked much more comfortable than being draped over Charlie’s shoulder, then Luna and Ginny, and just as Charlie and Romilda were whirling away, they caught a glimpse of a curious Persephone, hustling down the staircase.

The Floo network took them to a courtyard outside of the hospital, which looked onto Lake Washington, the moon reflecting in the dark waters. 

Ginny and Rolf were put on an antidotal IV drip, while the Healers ran blood tests and assessed hair and nail samples to see how long they had been potion-poisoned. Luna had some scans done to assess any serious spell-damage. 

Ginny and Luna were released within a few hours with little prescription baggies holding some potions and pills for them to take at home, but Rolf was admitted to the hospital as his samples showed that he had been being potion-poisoned for months, and after doing a neural scan the Healers had reason to believe that he had been potion-poisoned by a similar potion, if not the exact same one in the past.  

-----

Tuesday, August 15 

After that night, life went on. An August heatwave withered the team, though the air conditioning charm Aunt Florence had shown them kept the house breezy and pleasant. Ginny, Luna and Romilda gave lengthy statements to the police, and the others submitted requested memories as the state built its case against the Stewards, Daniel, and Zachary in their inter-state dragon smuggling scheme. Bartleby’s was also suing those parties and there were rumors of more charges to come, especially for Willard, as investigators looked into the families’ financial documents.  

A chastened Harry texted or called Ginny every few days. He told her about his experiences at the Auror Academy, where he was taking classes with Draco Malfoy, of all people. And though Ginny appreciated the updates and was amused to hear that Draco was finally trying a new hair-do, she found she had little to say. 

On the phone, she’d go out to the garden to her new hammock, hung between two bigleaf maples, and she’d watch the water while Harry spoke, sometimes seeing a passing whale. He never brought up Olivia, even though Ginny had told him the whole story. 

One day, while Ginny was lying in the hammock, having just said goodbye to Harry, Luna came into the yard with a glass of coffee-lemonade for them both. She conjured up a lawn chair and a table and sat beside Ginny.

“You were right,” said Ginny, still looking down past the farms at the blue water, “Olivia wasn’t making that jam or strawberry juice herself. It was always their house elf. Hoggweather told me.

“And depending on how they were paying the house elf -- his name is Daffy, by the way -- it could be another charge against the Stewards. If they only paid him the set minimum wage for one household, that would have been illegal. If you have a house elf work at two residences, there’s a different pay structure. And since he was making products to sell, they should have been giving him a percentage of the profits.”

“Hermione must have been angry when she heard about that,” said Luna, absently.

Ginny turned to look at Luna, who was watching the sea. 

“Have you heard from Rolf today?”

“His dad texted me,” said Luna, glancing down at her phone. “They’re starting him on a new potion today.”

Rolf had been transferred from the Lake Washington hospital to the NYU Magical Teaching Hospital so he was a quick Floo from his parents. He was seeing a team of Magical neurologists and therapists to help him with his potion damage. 

“The thing is--” said Luna.

“What?”

“If he had liked me better than Olivia, the love potion wouldn’t have changed that. That love potion only strengthens existing feelings. That’s why it was such a revolutionary formula when it was created, and why only love potions in that class can legally be sold.”

“Yeah.” Ginny had been given lots of pamphlets about the potion when they had gone to the hospital. She had been given a referral for a Magical neurologist if she wanted to go and work on rerouting the pathways the potion had made in her brain.

“Rolf wants us to stay together. We have the apartment, we have the plants. Our parents are close. But how am I supposed to stay with him?” She plucked a piece of grass to worry between her fingers.

“Didn’t the doctors say that he was probably on those love potions in the past?”

“Yes, the way he was metabolizing the potions showed that his body has built up a resistance to them, which means he’s likely had the potion in the past.” Luna turned and looked at Ginny. “And get this, he never finished unpacking after his senior year of high school and his mom looked through the boxers and found an old hair brush of his, and she sent some hair samples to a lab and it tested positive for love potion.”

“Jeez,” Ginny muttered. “Poor Rolf.”

A few minutes passed quietly.

“I feel so stupid,” Ginny said. “I thought she was amazing.”

“Well, as we’ve been talking about, you were on love potions.”

“Not until the very end, though. I talked about it with the hospital potioneer and there was a certain taste I kept getting the last few days I spent with her that was definitely the love potion, but before that I just liked her. And now Harry’s calling me every day and he’s not asking, but I think he wants to know if I’m going to get back together with him and come back to Grimmauld Place this fall.”

“These needy men,” said Luna, smiling sideways at her. “I kind of miss living at Grimmauld Place sometimes.”

“Yeah?”

“There was always something happening, you know? Remember when Dean stayed with us during his London internship?”

“And he was seeing that weird girl from Beauxbatons?” asked Ginny. “Who would come into the kitchen in the morning in just a bra and knickers?”

“Oh, I forgot about her! I was thinking about that camping trip in his dad’s van, when none of us knew how to use a petrol station--”

“And Ron was being so annoying and kept making us play that card game.”

“Oh, that one where he kept slapping everyone --?”

Chapter Text

Friday, October 6

The Boy Who Was Dumped?? 

• Episode 407 of Which Bitch 

Carrie Blackburn: And we’re back with your new episode of Which Bitch! I’m your host, Carrie Blackburn--

Finella Ugwu: And I’m also your host, Finella Ugwu! And today we have Marietta Edgecombe back again to help us discuss our favorite topic: Hogwarts gossip! We love to have you on Marietta, and so do our listeners who are always demanding we invite you back.

Carrie Blackburn: They can’t get enough of you, girl! You’ve always got the inside scoop.

Marietta Edgecombe: Hey ladies! I’m so excited to be here at the studio with you.

Carrie: Ugh, I wish I had gone to Hogwarts instead of Ilvermorny. Our classmates are so much less interesting!

Finella: Hard agree. Although, of course, Olivia Steward has been keeping us entertained with all her legal drama. 

Carrie: I could tell even when we were seniors and she was just a little eighth grader that she would be a real pot-stirrer.

Marietta: Has anything happened with her case recently? I think the last I heard about her was from your segment, when you were saying she’s awaiting trial at her parents’ house in San Diego?

Finella: Yeah, that’s right. And her dad is actually facing more legal jeopardy than her, because the state has pinpointed him as the mastermind behind the scheme.

Carrie: And while the state’s been investigating this case, they’ve uncovered more dirty laundry. It seems like Willard Steward was embezzling from Ilvermorny from his position on the board! He was sending out unauthorized donation requests to alumna and then pocketing the money we would send!

Finella: Who’s this ‘we,’ Carrie? I never give that school any money! Our taxes pay for that.

Carrie: I donated... Once.. But I just really liked the t-shirt they had for people who donated fifty dollars or more, okay?!

Finella: That money probably got used to reupholster the Steward’s yacht furniture.

Carrie: Whatever, it’s still a cool t-shirt.

Marietta: Wait, I thought Olivia Steward was, like, an heiress. Were they broke or something? Why was this family doing all these crimes?

Carrie: From what court records are available to the public, it seems like the Stewards had made some bad investments, and didn’t work actual jobs, but they wanted to keep living their fancy, expensive lifestyle.

Finella: And that’s why Olivia got caught up in all these crimes! Her dad set her up with this little farm so she would have a setting for her supposed strawberry potion-making business. And ladies, I will admit that I thought she was pretty freaking adorable when I would see her on my Tiktok and Instagram Reels!

Marietta: I bought some of her potions. And they worked too! I have a bit of acne scarring that nothing else has helped with, and with one of her potions, the scars are gone, just like that.

Finella: That’s because she was repackaging the potions from Bartleby’s, remember?

Carrie: I still stan. Have you seen her court outfits? There’s this meme page I follow that’s been posting them religiously and the girl looks HOT.

Finella: She can scam me anytime!

Carrie: Anyway, Olivia Steward is actually a great transition to today’s topic -- Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley. I think it’s over for real this time. 

Finella: We already knew this!

Carrie: Oh --

Marietta: I’m going to have to side with Carrie. It definitely seemed like Ginny was getting wrapped up in Olivia Steward’s web this past summer and I went to Olivia’s Fourth of July barbecue and my friend said she saw them kiss there --

Carrie: Really?

Finella: Keep up, Carrie! We literally discussed that kiss on the pod over the summer!

Marietta: But we never heard anything definitive from Harry or Ginny about their relationship --

Finella: --Yeah, but they never release information about their personal lives --

Marietta: But so far this Quidditch season, we’ve never seen Harry and Ginny kiss, hold hands, or anything! Remember when Harry used to run onto the Quidditch field after the games and give her a smooch?

Carrie: I think that only happened once at the finals--

Finella: But couldn’t they just be trying to keep their private life -- uh -- private?

Marietta: I might think so if it weren’t for this paparazzi picture.

Carrie: Okay, for any of our listeners who haven’t seen this picture, we’ve got it posted on our Instagram. It’s Ginny and Luna Lovegood wrapped up in what looks like a very intimate embrace after the Holyhead Harpies beat the Caerphilly Catapults last Tuesday. 

Finella: Aw, look at their faces. Ginny looks so happy. 

Marietta: And for anyone who hasn’t heard this before, there have been rumors swirling since Ginny’s sixth year at Hogwarts that she and Luna had a secret romance! 

Finella: Aw, school sweethearts.

Marietta: I mean, for those of us who actually knew the people involved, it seemed a bit of a slap in the face to Harry, to be cheating on him while he’s off fighting You-Know-Who...

Carrie: Yeah, whatever! I say let our girl have some fun. Ginny is absolutely my fave Magical celeb and she can do no wrong in my eyes!

Finella: Speaking of Weasley drama, big brother Charlie was also at the match and sitting right next to Romilda Vane!

Carrie: She’s one of those Dumbledore’s Army girls right?

Marietta: Yeah, she definitely was NOT friends with Harry or any of his crew during Hogwarts, but I know for a fact that she had a major crush on him!

Finella: From the looks of these pictures with Charlie, looks like a different major crush might be happening now.

-----

From the December Issue of Witch Craft  

“An Intimate Conversation with Olivia Steward, on transformation, hope and forgiveness”

By Marietta Edgecombe

When I travel to Olivia Steward’s beautiful cottage-style home on San Juan Island, I am inevitably reminded of the Fourth of July party I attended here last summer. Then as now, Olivia and her house have that certain je ne sais quoi that propelled her from an Ilvermorny graduate with nothing besides the Steward family name to the preeminent social media presence of the American Magical community. Olivia has conquered Instagram, Tiktok, and now she’s thinking about her next move.

When I walk in the door, under a charming hand-carved sign, Olivia greets me in a simple oversized crew neck and faded blue jeans, and what look to be hand-knitted socks sticking out of her suede Bostons. She’s holding a big cuddly Newfoundland puppy (Frankie) in one arm and a warm green tea latte in the other. Her living room is filled with pale winter sunlight and my tea is waiting on the coffee table. 

Recently, Olivia Steward has been turning heads in the Hollywood Hills on the arm of her new beau, Sylvan Van Blair. Sylvan, of course, is the son of the wealthy heiress and Beauxbatons alumna, Catherine Van Blair, and a certain, notoriously private Muggle movie star. But when I ask about this latest flame, Olivia rolls her eyes. “Our dogs are best friends,” she grants.

This fall, Olivia had a chance to break out her pantsuits, as she was embroiled in quite a lot of legal trouble. Her father, Willard, is currently in California's lock-up for Magical convicts on three counts of fraud and ten counts of felony trafficking of Magical endangered species. 

In case you forgot the details of the Steward family legal drama, I’ll give you a refresher on what we learned in the courtroom: For the last two years, Willard supplied Olivia with potion bases he had sourced from the legendary San Francisco-based potioneering company Fleischmann and Bartleby, for her to resell under her brand name with the signature addition of strawberry juice. As Willard explained in court, Olivia had no idea that the potions weren’t being brewed by him using their family recipes, so she believed she could legally sell the product. Even more shockingly, Willard was using an unused storage room in Olivia’s cottage to sedate rare and endangered sea dragons, extract their venom, and then sell them on the black market as pets. All unbeknownst to his daughter.

As our discussion turns to this saga, Olivia’s eyes gleam with tears. “It was totally heart-breaking to find out my own dad was using my business to commit fraud, but it was even worse that he was smuggling those poor, little dragons. He wouldn’t have known it, but that choice cost me personally more than just our legal fees.” I question further, but Olivia says no more. 

If my journalistic intuition tells me anything, I think she was referring to her well-publicized flirtationshiplast summer with Ginny Weasley, whose older brother Charlie has been conducting a long-term study on that very dragon species. 

While Olivia’s father was sentenced to six years in prison, Olivia was let go on probation with six weeks of community service. Olivia spent that time speaking to young women and girls about manipulative and controlling family relationships. “If I can prevent a situation like mine from happening to even one young woman, it’s a victory,” she said, wiping her eyes.

So what’s next in the whirlwind life of Olivia Steward? She’s retaining the farm, which is managed through state-of-the-art farming enchantments, and is opening a juice and smoothie shop this spring in Los Angeles. Her online potions company is going strong, now in an official partnership with Fleischmann and Bartleby. “They weren’t pleased when they found out what my father had done,” Olivia tells me. “But then we put our heads together and realized that with my marketing and advertising and their iconic product, we would make a great team.”

Olivia is also dipping her toes into interior decoration. She’s renting a little bungalow in Santa Monica while she gets her smoothie business up and running. “A few friends of Sylvan’s from the film industry have stopped by, and they really like what I’ve done with the place, so I’m helping choose some furniture and fabrics at their homes,” she says. 

With these new connections to Hollywood, there are rumors swirling that Olivia is being considered for a role in a new Netflix rom-com. “I am way too busy with my store opening to even think about that,” Olivia tells me.

But not quite a denial, I notice. All I can predict is that we can’t predict what will happen next in the fascinating life of Olivia Steward!

**

December 23

“But wait a minute,” said Molly Weasley indignantly, setting down Witch Craft with a thump on the coffee table. “It doesn't mention her use of love potion anywhere in here!”

“Mum, don’t you remember,” said Ron, who was lounging in an armchair by the fireplace, “by the time Ginny went to the hospital the potion was borderline undetectable in blood tests, and she never consumed enough for it to show up in her hair or nails.”

“And that silly tosser, Rolf, declined to press charges,” said Romilda, from the couch where she was idly looking at a family photo album. Charlie was sitting next to her, looking pink around the ears, while Romilda examined pictures of him at age twelve. “Nice frosted tips, mate,” she commented, elbowing him. 

It was around noon on the day before Christmas Eve. Hermione was in the kitchen, burning cookies, from the smell of it. Ginny and Luna were still asleep after partying ‘til dawn the night before at the Hollywood Harpies’ Yule party. Bill and Fleur were upstairs putting down their newest baby, Louis, for a nap. Their two little daughters, Victoire and Dominique, had come up with the idea of making cookies, and had enlisted Hermione in their efforts. After five minutes, however, they had somehow appeared in the back garden throwing snow at George and Arthur, who had innocently been making a snowman. Percy was still at work, but would be coming by with his girlfriend of almost a year, Audrey, that evening.

“I’ll go see if Hermione needs me,” said Romilda as the smoke detector started beeping. “You know, I’m feeling good about these pictures. I’ve seen the worst of your adolescence and I can still accept you.”

“Thanks,” said Charlie, in an only somewhat surly tone.

“I just don’t know about that girl,” said Molly darkly, eyeing the doorway Romilda had just strolled through.

“Oh, don’t worry, she grows on you,” Ginny said through a yawn, as she and Luna shuffled into the living room, still in their pajamas.

“Like a wart,” said Charlie, fondly.

“Shall I make a pot of tea?” asked Ginny, as she tucked a quilt around Luna, who had settled onto a sofa.

“Oh, go on then, dear,” said Molly. “I’d love another cup.”

There was a loud crack followed by a knock on the door, and Harry poked his head inside. 

“There you are, mate!” said Ron, enthusiastically as he and Molly hurried over to drag him through the door.

“Here I am,” said Harry, somewhat pink in the face as he avoided eye contact with Luna.

Hermione came bustling in from the kitchen and wrapped Harry in a tight hug. Ginny smiled awkwardly as she passed by with the tea kettle, and last came Romilda, holding aloft a plate of cookies that were coated with a suspiciously thick layer of frosting. 

“Howdy, Potter,” she said, “care for some gingerbread?”

Harry did a cartoonish double-take. “Romilda-? What are you doing here?”

“Oh stand down, Potter,” she said, calmly, setting the cookies on the coffee table. “I’m not here to take your v-card. Not this time, at least.”

** 

Come midnight, the whole Weasley clan, friends and family, was tucked up in their beds.

That evening, Molly and Fleur had spearheaded an enormous dinner of French onion soup, freshly baked bread, roasted root vegetables and a green salad. Sundry other members of the family were enlisted as dishwashers and line cooks, but Fleur and Molly seemed to read each other’s minds as they simultaneously ruled the kitchen, discussed the gossip of extended family members, and sang along to the radio. 

Audrey had nervously poked her head in the kitchen with some intention of making a good impression on Percy’s mum, but backed away slowly upon immediately seeing Molly scolding Harry and Angelina for mincing onions when they were supposed to be cutting them in rings, for Godric’s sake! Audrey was resigned to joining Percy in the living room by the fire, in his accustomed posture, that of a medieval lord waiting to be served, as Ginny had once put it.

After dinner, Bill oversaw Victoire and Dominique washing the enormous pile of dishes, while George made after dinner drinks and Arthur coaxed his espresso machine (beloved, bought in a Muggle second-hand shop, barely works) to life.

After board games, lively discussions, and long boring monologues from the many blowhards assembled in the living room (Percy chief among them), Molly and Arthur had led the charge up to bed, Arthur bringing along an old copy of Popular Electronics Hermione had brought him from her parents’ house.

Romilda was sitting up in bed, as Charlie put on his pajamas. 

“Your mum hates me,” she said.

“Aw, don’t worry about her,” said Charlie buttoning up his plaid top. “She’s always fussy about whoever we bring home.”

“What about Fleur?” asked Romilda.

“Are you kidding?” asked Charlie, as he hopped into bed. “Up until Victoire was born, I think she was hoping Bill would dump her. It almost would have been better if Bill had,” added Charlie, thoughtfully, “she and Mum are too powerful together.”

“Well, what about Hermione? She must have always loved Hermione.”

“Hmm, well yeah, she always liked Hermione well enough... Oh wait, there was actually that one time,” he scratched his stubbly chin thoughtfully. “Oh yeah, it was when the Triwizard Tournament was going on. She showed me some magazine article about how Hermione was two-timing Viktor Krum and Harry,” he said, snorting. 

“Your mum was slut-shaming Hermione of all people?” asked Romilda in disbelief. “I gotta hand it to your mum, that’s sort of impressive. Like, her mind! I don’t think I’m imaginative enough to picture Hermione as some sort of succubus, but your mum actually is more open-minded, in a way. I would have pigeon-holed Hermione as a nerd, but your mum wasn’t putting her in a box.”

Ron and Hermione were in the attic, with Harry a few feet away on a cot. 

“He had a few too many hot toddies,” whispered Hermione to Harry across the room. “You wouldn’t believe how much worse the snoring is lately, especially when he’s been drinking.”

“Oh, I think I’ll believe it,” Harry whispered back. 

And then Ron heaved such a comically loud snort, Harry and Hermione both dissolved into giggles (having had a number of hot toddies themselves), waking Ron up with a startled, “wass going on?”

Audrey, staying overnight at the Burrow for the first time, was poking around Percy’s possessions and finding old school awards for which Percy was more than willing to share the backstories.

George and Angelina were conked out, both being the type who fall asleep on command.

In his magically-expanded old room, Bill and Fleur and baby Louis were sleeping peacefully, unaware that Dominique and Victoire had snuck down the narrow flights of rickety stairs into the kitchen and were investigating the freezer’s supply of ice cream. 

Luna and Ginny were snuggled up under a pile of patchwork quilts. 

“You stole all the blankets last night,” said Ginny, in the dark. “I nearly froze to death.” 

“Oh, dear,” said Luna, contritely. “You can always yank them back, you know.”

“Well, I wouldn’t want to wake you up,” said Ginny. 

They were quiet for a few moments. 

“I’m getting this weird déjà vu,” said Ginny, “having Harry up in Ron’s room again. It’s like we’re all teens again.”

“Do you miss him?” asked Luna, snuggled into Ginny’s arms.

Ginny was quiet for a few moments, thinking.

“I mean sure, I miss him a bit. It’s nice to see him. But it’s not like he’s out of my life. We’re going to know him forever, and that’s a huge relief. For some reason, I was scared to break up because I was worried that I would lose him entirely, but now I think we’re in each other’s lives the right amount.”

“That makes sense.”

“And now,” Ginny added, pulling Luna even closer, “now I have you.”