If you happened to be walking along the grassy hills of Ottery St Catchpole in the summer of 1987, you might have come across a young girl with a bob of sun-bleached hair. It really didn’t matter what day of that summer it was, you could have stumbled across her at any one of them. Sometimes she was even out when it was raining.
If you did happen upon the young girl with a bob of sun-bleached hair, she might very well have given you a crown of freshly picked flowers, because during most of the summer of 1987, that was an art she was trying to perfect.
“Would you like to be part of my flower crown?” Luna Lovegood asked the daisy in front of her.
The daisy said nothing and continued to sway in the light breeze.
Luna smiled, gently plucked the daisy from the rest of the stem and wove it in with the others. She then leaned back to survey her work.
It was, in her six year old opinion, the best one yet. Of course, she was not nearly as good as her mother, who was, in Luna’s six year old opinion, the best flower crown maker on Earth. There could have been someone better then Lucy Lovegood somewhere other then Earth, but Luna was yet to meet them.
And so, proud of what she had accomplished, Luna placed her crown on her head (first giving it a final check for the elusive wart-skinned pixie) and set off through the grassy hills of Ottery St Catchpole to show her mother what she had made.
The Lovegoods lived in a house that was nestled snugly between two hills. Luna and her father rolled down these every evening when he got home from work. The house was old. Countless people had lived there before them, and all the old pictures and paintings that they had left had been stored up in the attic. Luna, when she was bored, enjoyed going up there and talking to them. The old man with the moustache told funny stories.
“Mummmm?” Luna called as she hauled off her shoes in the hall.
She was met with no answer but that did not phase her even the slightest. Perhaps her mother was dancing to music on the wireless in the kitchen, like she did sometimes when she thought nobody was looking.
Luna raced into the kitchen. The wireless was on but her mother was nowhere to be found. Luna took a cherry from the bowl on the table and continued her search.
After she had searched the whole house, calling “Mummmmm!” over and over again (she had even dared to shout out Lucy, a name that only adults referred to her as) she came to the conclusion that her mother was down in the basement, which Lucy called her ‘workplace’ and Luna secretly called ‘the Cave’. She could never hear anything down there.
She tentatively walked down the stairs and knocked on the door of the Cave. Her mother’s musical voice floated out from under the door.
“Luna?” it asked.
Luna pushed open the door to find her mother in front of a cauldron, a measuring cup full of silvery liquid in one hand and her wand in the other.
“Hi, Mum,” Luna said, glad she had finally found her.
Her mother, glasses perched precariously on the end of her nose, laid down the measuring cup and went over to her daughter. “Hello, my moon,” she said, pressing a kiss onto Luna’s forehead. “All done playing?”
Luna nodded. “Look what I made, mum!” She indicated the daisies on her head.
“They’re absolutely beautiful! Luna, your father should be home any minute, would you go and meet him, please?” Lucy said lightly.
“Why can’t I stay here with you?” Luna asked.
Lucy smiled softly. “Well, Luna. I’ve got to try and make something that might help a lot of people. But, you see, if anything goes wrong, it has a funny affect on little girls!”
“What?” Luna inquired curiously.
Lucy leaned forward for dramatic effect. “They stop growing!”
Luna’s eyes widened. “Really?”
Her mother nodded solemnly, fighting back a grin.
“But I want to be big like you!”
“Then you should go and meet your father!” Lucy said.
Luna nodded and skipped out of the room.
“Goodbye, darling! Try not to get any grass stains!” her mother called after her.
Luna went to close the door. She wondered what her mother was trying to make. Would it be a potion?
But surely it wouldn’t affect her if she was out here? Her mother had once told her that there was a kind of Shield Charm around the Cave. She was such a curious girl that she made it look like she closed the door to the Cave, but she actually left it open just an inch.
She got down on her belly and looked through the crack in the door. She had never seen her mother work before.
Luna watched her mother pour the silver liquid into the cauldron. Nothing happened. Her mother peered into the cauldron.
Quite suddenly, her mother pressed her hand against her head.
Is she checking to see if she’s sick? Luna wondered.
Lucy Lovegood fumbled for her wand, swaying on the spot. She dropped to her knees before falling onto the floor, motionless.
“Mum?” Luna whispered.
Her mother did not respond.
“Mum? Are you sick?”
Her mother’s light hair was strewn across her face. Luna wanted to go and brush it off.
“Luna? What are you doing down here?”
Lionel Lovegood looked from his daughter to the partially open door.
“Daddy… I think Mum’s sick…” Luna said slowly.
Lionel strode over and peered into the Cave.
“Luna,” he said, his voice sharp. “Luna, go upstairs, please.”
“But what about-”
“Now, Luna.”
Her eyes wide at of the tone of her father’s voice, Luna did as she was told. Perhaps she would find the ther-mom-meter for her mother…
*
Luna had wandered away from the group of people out of boredom. They had all gotten up and said things one by one. She had wanted her father to come with her (he was sad for some reason) but he would not.
She sat down in the grass and began making another flower crown. Eventually, when she was almost finished, her father came over to her.
“It’s all over now, Luna,” he said, placing a hand on her shoulder.
“Can we go home now?” Luna asked.
He nodded.
Her father took her by the hand and they began walking.
“Daddy, where’s Mum?” Luna looked around, as if expecting her mother to appear.
“Luna… your mother’s gone,” Lionel said sadly.
“Gone where?” She wove the last daisy into her crown.
“Up there.” He pointed upwards.
“She’s in the sky?” Luna asked disbelievingly.
He nodded.
“Well, when’s she coming back?”
“It’ll just be you and me for a while, but you’ll see her again. I promise,” Lionel assured her. “But if you ever want to talk to her, just tell me and we’ll come here, okay?”
“Can I talk to Mum now?”
Her father led her across the grass to a big block of stone sticking out of the ground. He then walked off a little ways, his head in his hands.
“Daddy says this is where I can talk to you while you’re gone away,” Luna said slowly. “You can bring me back a piece of cloud when you come back!”
She looked up at the clouds. “I made you a flower crown to make you feel better… Come back soon please, Mum, and make Daddy happy again.”
If you happened to be walking through the hills of Ottery St Catchpole during the summer of 1987, you might have seen a little girl with a bob of sun-bleached hair place a crown of daises on her mother's grave and walk away, hand-in-hand with her father.
To Walk a Mile by Thoth
Chapter Notes: Many thanks to Hokey for helping with this chapter! According to cannon, Luna should be nine here, but I made her six for plot purposes.