“A Ray of Sun”
The summer of 1990 began like any other summer. Mum sent me off to find yellow flowers for the house. Yellow was her favorite. I passed by Old-Lady-Druella's house. She was the closest we had to a neighbor, her house a short walk away from ours, but I didn't stop to say hello. Mum and Dad don't like me talking to her. I finally came to Mum's tree that she planted years ago, where several pretty flowers bloomed below it. I was careful not to harm them as I picked them. Once I was satisfied with my bundle, I headed back home.
As I approached Old-Lady-Druella's house once more, I noticed a group of wizards walking towards her front porch. There were two adults- lean, pale, and blond with angular features. Then there was a boy who I could only assume was their son, because his appearance was a strict, mirror image of the two adults. I didn't want to be noticed, so I took the long way around her house.
-
A day or so after that, I woke up early to watch the sun rise. It was my favorite time of the day. Nobody was awake; the air was soft, brisk and sweet. It felt like there was only me and the sounds of nature, and for those few minutes, I could forget everything in my mind and focus on its beauty. But that morning something disturbed my peace. A very aggravating sound kept piercing my blanket of tranquility, and it was getting on my nerves. I stormed out of the house to find the source of the din.
Outside of Old-Lady-Druella's house was the boy I had seen earlier. He looked like he was trying to fly a broomstick, but it wasn't working out too well. Every time he fell, he let out a yell of frustration. Eventually he noticed me standing there, watching him. He must've found it odd, because he stopped flying (or at least the attempt).
"What?" he snapped.
"You were disturbing my peace," I stated as calmly as I could, given that I was quite displeased with him at that moment.
"And?" he asked, obviously unconcerned.
"Would you please stop?" I asked in the sweetest voice I could muster.
"No. Could you get out of my space?"
"Not until you stop being so loud," I retorted, getting angrier now.
"Fine, then," he said. "I don't care if you get run over."
"If you can get it off the ground first," I snickered.
I sat there, and he tried his best to fly his broomstick, neither one of us giving in to the other. After awhile, I closed my eyes and drifted off in the grass. I don't know how long I was asleep, but I was soon shaken awake.
"I did it! I did it!" the boy exclaimed, all rivalry forgotten or at least overshadowed by his triumph. It was impossible to suppress a smile at his ecstatic face. He sat next to me then, breathing hard.
"What's your name?" he asked.
"Luna. And yours?"
"Draco."
"Oh. How old are you?" I asked.
"Ten. My birthday was yesterday! That broom was a present from my father. It's a Nimbus 1700!" he rambled.
"Oh," I said. "Well, happy late-tenth-birthday."
"Thanks," he replied. "How old are you?"
"I'm nine," I said.
"So... Why were you up so early?" he asked after a pause.
"I like to watch the sun rise." It wasn't until then that I realized I had slept through it.
"Oh, well, you kinda missed it," he said, looking up at the now bright blue sky.
"Yeah... Hey, what do you want for your birthday?" I asked rather suddenly.
He seemed taken aback as he stammered, "Oh, erm…"
"I can make you a bracelet!" I said.
"A bracelet?" he asked with a horror-stricken face. "But those are for girls!"
"Nuh-uh! It'll look fine, I promise."
"Don't use any girlie colors," he said, giving in. I’m sure that he would have accepted any gift someone gave to him, girlie or not.
"I won't," I assured him.
-
I spent most of that June with Draco. We'd hardly agree on anything, but no matter how much we fought, we couldn't stand to be apart. The arguments were often trivial, like which flavor of Bertie Bott's was the best. My favorite was blackberry, but he preferred toffee. Often I wondered if he argued with me just for the sake of argument. He always seemed to enjoy bickering, even if nobody was winning. We were also extremely competitive with each other. We would play wizard's chess and gobstones all day, yelling until we were hoarse. If he won, I'd scream that he was cheating. If I won, he'd try to act like he let me win. On the rare occasion that we weren't quarreling, we would talk. I learned that Old-Lady-Druella was Draco's grandmother. He was visiting for the summer. I would tell him about my Dad's magazine, but that would usually end with another argument.
"That's bull!" he'd usually say.
Then I'd say, "No it's not! It's been proven!"
Then we'd carry on with nuh-uh's and uh-huh's for quite awhile.
The worst argument we ever had was about Harry Potter.
"He's the best thing that's ever happened to the wizarding community!" I said.
"Are you mental? He's a bleeding mutant!" he retorted.
"What are you talking about?" I demanded.
"Obviously, if he defeated the greatest wizard of all time, he must be a freak," he stated, matter-of-factly.
"He's a hero for defeating You-Know-Who!"
"Now look who's being mental. You-Know-Who was a genius! We'd be living in a perfect world if he were still around! No muggles or mudbloods roaming the streets like they belong," he sneered.
"Shut up! You don't even know what you're talking about! He killed so many innocent people!"
"They were all being stupid! They deserved to die! Potter and the rest of them!" Draco sneered, but as soon as it came out of his mouth, he realized what he had said, and his face fell. “Luna, I-“
"So what, you're calling me stupid?" I said, quieter. "You think I deserve to die?"
"No, that's not what I said..."
"Yes, it was."
"But I didn't really mean it."
There was an awkward silence where neither of us knew quite what to say after that. I eventually said, "I still think Harry's a hero."
"What if he's the next Dark Lord? Have you ever thought about that?"
"Not in a million years! He would never!" I exclaimed.
"You don't know that! Have you ever met him?"
"No, but I just have a feeling!"
"I bet you fancy him," he said, quite suddenly.
"So what if I do?" I yelled.
"I wouldn't care!" he yelled back.
"And I wouldn't care that you wouldn't care!"
I was so angry that I left the conversation entirely, not wanting to hear it any longer. I walked home with no intention of coming back. That, at least, was the plan. Later that night though, I couldn't sleep. I had to make sure Draco wasn't mad at me. I snuck out of the house and over to his grandmother's.
"Draco!" I hissed through his window.
"Whaddayawant?" he grumbled as he sat up in his bed.
"I can't sleep unless I know you aren't mad at me," I whispered.
"Well then, I guess you won't be sleeping well tonight." he said and lied back down in his bed.
I sighed and started walking back home. I hadn't gotten very far when I heard Draco call from his window, "I was only joking! I'm not mad."
I smiled to myself as I walked back home.
-
I was with my mother in the kitchen on a bright, sunny day early in July. The aroma of sugar and home-made candles filled the room. Mum was chopping berries in her apron with her long, dirty blond hair in a bun. In the distance, I could hear thunder.
"What a shame," Mum said. "It's such a beautiful day out. I'd hate for it to storm."
We were making kraknuff pie, with real kracknuff berries. The berries are supposed to stimulate your sense of smell, but only if you eat them upside down. We always have a good laugh when we have them.
"Hmmm," my mother said, pausing with her knife mid-air. "I wonder..."
"What, Mum?" I asked.
"Well, it seems like I could speed up the cooking process if I just simply... yes, that should work!"
"What, Mum?" I asked yet again.
"I've got it! Watch this, Luna!" She held her knife above the berries in one hand, and her wand in the other. "Alacer Conseco!" she said, pointing her wand at the knife. It rose from her hand gently at first, then it speed down hectically toward the berries. It was chopping the berries, true, but it didn't seem to have a problem with chopping everything else in the room. Soon, it was flying towards anything it could reach. My mum, panicked, started rambling off any words she could think of that might stop the manic knife. "Subsisto! Resisto! Stop! Please!" she yelled, but the rampage continued. I was hidden under a chair by the time she desperately lunged for the knife. I saw only her feet as the utensil fought her off. The struggle was soon out of my eye-sight and into an adjacent room. Dad burst into the room then, but I knew it was too late, for the pandemonium had seized. I knew the only logical explanation for the knife to return to its inanimate state was if the caster of the spell was dead. My fears were confirmed by Dad's screams when he ran into the next room. I stumbled after him, dazed.
Somewhere inside me, a girl screamed in horror for her mum. She was calling for help. She was crying. She was using me, my body, and my voice, but surely this girl was not me. Everything seemed so far away, as if this was all a dream, and I prayed that it was. If one person in this world was invincible, it was my mum. She was a light that could never be snuffed out; she shined wherever she went. How could I live without her to illuminate my path? Suddenly I was plunged into darkness, and for the first time in my life, I didn't have a clue what to do.
Dad was huddled over Mum's blood-stained body, sobbing hysterically. Around them, the debris from the accident was strewn across the floor. The murderous knife was lying next to her. I couldn't stay in this room. I had to leave.
I didn't know where I was going at the time, but my legs carried me to Mum's tree. I fell to my knees, the tears streaming down my face harder now. I snatched a handful of flowers and flung them away from me. It felt good to get my anger out, so I kept slinging flowers, sobbing and moaning all the while.
"Luna? Bloody hell! What...?" Draco was suddenly only a meter away from me. I didn't notice him coming; I was so out of it. "Stop!" he said, snatching my arm away from the flowers. Then I collapsed against the tree as if he had drained all of my energy, yet I still cried like I'd never cried before. He held my hand, and sat next to me. He never said a word, out of respect or fear, I didn't know. Nevertheless, he stayed by my side.
At one point, it began to rain. I fully expected him to leave then, but he never did. He still sat next to me as the rain mingled with my tears, making it impossible to distinguish which was which. Something about the rain soaking me through calmed me. It was almost beautiful. My sobbing stopped, and my breathing evened out. I wanted that peace to last for as long as I could make it. I tried not to think about why I was in the pouring rain, but only that I was. Strangely, even through the raging rainstorm, a ray of sun poked through the clouds, and this in it of itself was the one thing that truly helped me through my mother's death. I knew then that her presence would always linger with me, and that she was in a place much better than here.
-
The next month without Mum was the hardest of my life. I could not get used to her death, and every time her name was mentioned, the scene of her death would play over in my head, and a fresh wave of tears would erupt from my eyes. I was afraid that this cloud would always hang over me. I didn't see Draco for the rest of the summer. He must have left soon after Mum died.
The day before Mum's funeral (she was to be buried under her tree, surrounded by her favorite flowers) I noticed that I hadn't given Draco his birthday present. I sent him an owl with the bracelet and a note:
Dear Draco,
Here is your present. I told you I wouldn't make it too girlie. I wove a spoodlinx hair in it for luck. I hope you go back to your grandmother's soon; I'll miss having you around.
Luna
P.S. Thank you for sitting with me.
Everyone Has a Secret... by The_Lovely_Rowena
Story Notes:
This is not a fluffy fic. You have been warned.