taxonomites | 003: Two's a Crowd [Location: Luna's House]

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003: Two's a Crowd [Location: Luna's House]

Luna Lovegood had been in Taxon for almost four months. (Which was rather a long time, if you thought about it. She had already missed the first term of her last year at Hogwarts.) And, for four months, she had started every day in the exactly the same way. She woke up, washed and dressed, ate a light breakfast and spent some time wondering if her friends were any closer to finding her. After that, she was ready to start her day.

(She didn't hope that they were closer to find her. She didn't need to hope. She trusted Harry, Neville and the others absolutely implicitly. It was only a matter of time before they found her, and you didn't spend your summers fishing for gulping plimpies without learning a little patience.)

On this particular morning, Luna woke up rather early. The artificial light of the sky - no different, in her mind, to the ceiling of the Great Hall - was filtering through the curtains. It was going to be a nice day. She would probably take a walk down to the graveyard. She was certain that there were a few piskies lurking behind the stones and in the crypts, but they were usually too quick for her. One day, she would manage to catch them.

It was only when she rolled over that she realised something was wrong.

The witch reached immediately for her wand, which had been placed on the bedside table for safe keeping. (It spent the rest of the time behind her ear, unless she was in public.)

She hadn't made very many friends in Taxon - for some reason, she was never very good at making friends - and she certainly hadn't invited anyone to spend the night in her room. Had she? Perhaps she had been affected by a memory charm. Perhaps he - whoever he was - had been affected by a memory charm.

"Good morning," she said lightly, lowering her wand but not putting it away, "Did you sleep well? I hope you don't want breakfast in bed. I don't think I have any trays."

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Topher mumbles groggily for a moment, and then sits up with a start. He's in someone else's room, in someone else's bed, and the someone else is female and definitely underage.
"Oh, Shit!"

Wait. And also not freaking out. Something about breakfast?
"Wait, what?"

"Breakfast," repeated Luna, as if this was a perfectly natural conversation to have with a stranger who had recently appeared in her bedroom. "It's morning. We could have some toast, if you like?"

She sat up, brushing down her fortunately conservative striped pyjamas and wondering what sorts of jams she could offer to her guest. She'd never been particularly interested in culinary magical, and, even if she had practiced the right spells, he was a probably a Muggle. She'd have to be careful.

"I'm Luna. Luna Lovegood," she added, conversationally, "Do you know why you're in my bed?"

"Uh... d'you have any coffee?"

Topher, luckily, also believed in pyjamas - plaid flannel pants and an old t-shirt.

"I'm Topher. Topher Brink. And no. Well, yes, kind of. But no, not yours particularly or me particularly."

"I don't think so," Luna said reflectively, pulling on her slippers and tucking her unused wand into her pyjama pocket. He didn't seem to be dangerous. In fact, he seemed to be even more confused than she was. Maybe he wasn't used to memory charms. "I can look for some, if you like?"

(It was her bedroom, after all. She was the hostess.)

"Oh. I rather hoped you would. I'm afraid I don't remember meeting you, either."

"If you could, that would be great."

But he then tried to better articulate his thought.

"See, that's the point. We haven't met. They want to know how we'll react. It's been happening to lots of people. Xander, for one."

"Who?" Luna asked, padding across the bedroom towards the door, "The people who are experimenting on us?"

If she didn't know better now, then this would have confirmed her theory about the involvement of the American Ministry of Magic. They took part in all sorts of strange experiments in her world, and they didn't make a great deal of sense to outsiders either.

"Xander? Oh, I've spoken to him. He was very nice to me when I arrived. He said..."

She didn't manage to finish. She'd stepped too far away from Topher while she was speaking, and the pain of the separation hit her like a dozen rather unpleasant hexes. With a startled gasp, Luna stumbled backwards and bumped into the bed.

"Yeah. I've got money on aliens, considering how diverse the population is."

She seemed to have a theory of her own, but didn't share.

He felt the pain as well, and in a moment of almost uncharacteristic grace, he managed to catch her, and prevent her from truly toppling into the bed.

"What was that?"

"I don't know," said Luna honestly. For a moment, her usual serenity disappeared, but the pain had faded as suddenly as it had appeared and she recovered fairly quickly. "Are you all right? It was rather horrible, wasn't it?"

"There's nobody else in the house," she informed him, "My detection charms ..." - setting them was a habit she hadn't been able to shake in the months since the war - "... would have revealed them."

She was, after all, quite good at charms.

He nods, not really having his tongue back to speak yet. In a moment, though, he was back to thinking.

"Detection charms? Hmm. If someone had... a lot more magic or whatever than you, would they be able to bypass the charms?"

"The stronger their magic, the more likely they are to trip the spells," explained Luna, clearly pleased that he understood what she'd said. (Or, perhaps, misinterpreting the extent of his understanding.) "Although I suppose someone could have made a countercharm. It would have to be very complex, but it isn't impossible. Are you a wizard? Would you like to check?"

"Would someone with no magic still trip them?"
He really doesn't understand magic, but he's looking at it like some sort of coding, or electrical current.

"No, I'm not a wizard. I'm a computer geek."

Luna nodded. Her understanding of science and technology was still rather patchy, and it often didn't occur to her until it was too late anyway, but her understanding of magic was rather good.

"Yes. In my world. I'm afraid I don't know about this one. I should have tested it, but I didn't know where to ask for volunteers." Or how to ask.

"I don't know what a geek is," she added, "But I'm learning all about computers. They're like the tablet, aren't they?"

"A geek is someone who knows way too much about a particular subject, and kinda makes a hobby out of it. Other people tend to call us nerds or dorks, you name it. The tablet's pretty rudimentary, as far as the programming goes. It's just the interface that's advanced. But yeah. Like the tablet."

Topher was starting to see this through the eyes of the experimenters. He thought they might have to throw this interaction out. Luna was definitely an outlier in her perspective age and gender brackets.

"Oh!" Luna nodded in understanding, wondering if she was allowed to apply the same word to her friends and their own specialist subjects. Daddy was focused on magical creatures, of course, and Neville knew a lot about herbology.

"You can still help me look, if you like? I don't know very much about machines like the tablet. They could affect my spells."

"For- coffee? Okay, sure." Because this would really be a little more manageable with some caffeine in his bloodstream.

"And to help me fight any intruders," she said, nonchalantly, "Or you can hide behind me, if you like? I don't mind. Do you think you're very brave?"

OOC: Sorry for the huge delay, the return to university turned out to be a bit more chaotic than I'd expected.

"I - heh, no, not really. We had guys with guns for that. But so long as you're not expecting intruders with guns, we should be good. I can fake it."

[[ooc: totally fine! I know how that goes...]]

"Guns?" Luna looked blank for a moment, then nodded. "Do you mean the Muggle wands that shoot fire at people? They don't sound very nice. I hope you didn't make them use them."

And with that moral statement, Luna proceeds to lead the way down the stairs, humming softly to herself. As soon as she gets a little too far, she starts to feel strange and pulls up short.

"Ouch."

Topher mutters something about shooting or being shot, and when he feels it, too, he skips a step to be a little closer.

"Guess we can't get very far apart at all, huh?"

"Do you mind?" she asked placidly, fixing Topher with an unblinking stare before continuing down the stairs. "You can hold my hand, if you like. It might make things easier."

"Um, sure." He could do that without being creepy, right? And anyway, she was almost placid to the point of being a Doll. Only she wasn't a Doll. She was just... accepting. Which was almost weirder.

With a smile - and without giving him an opportunity to protest - Luna took hold of Topher's hand and began to lead the rest of the way down the stairs. She was certainly unnaturally accepting. Her father had always taught her to view the world with an open mind, and no amount of war, torture or kidnap had managed to suppress Luna's spirit.

"I don't know very much about you," she commented as they walked, "If we're going to be stuck together, I think that would be nice. What would you like to tell me?"

"What d'you want to know? I'm American, I live at work, basically... I work as a computer programmer doing some pretty advanced neurological stuff... and I have no social life to speak of."

Luna listened to Topher with her head tilted slightly to one side. Her expression was one of keen interest. It was as if he'd suddenly told her the most remarkable piece of information in the world, and the intensity with which she examined him may well have been a bit unnerving.

"I've always wanted to visit America," she remarked, "A social life? Is that like having friends? I'm sure you'll find some soon. They're nice to have around, sometimes."

Unnerving was putting it mildly. Topher found her downright creepy, and not in the mild-as-a-lamb way like the Dolls. She was creepy in an intense way.

"Yeah, friends, buddies... people you associate with outside of work."

"I've never had much time for that," said Luna, thoughtfully. She wasn't sure how to use the equipment in the kitchen, which had all been in place when she'd arrived. Waving her wand in an absent way, vaguely reminiscent of a conductor's baton, she summoned cups and a kettle and coffee granules, which circled above them for a moment before landing on the side.

"Daddy and I go traveling in the summer," she added, "I have friends at Hogwarts, though. I was very surprised to make them, but I do like it. Do you want sugar?"

Topher watched the swirling cups and things curiously, but he was almost getting used to her.

"Just a dash would be good, thanks."

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003: Two's a Crowd [Location: Luna's House]

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