Ginny knew that it was a risk. But she didn’t want to wait anymore, she had already held back so long on doing it. She took out her wand and with a series of low powered cutting charms started to carve the large stone in front of her. They were not very powerful, and Ginny barely even scratched the stone each time she cast the spell. But it was almost better that way, that it would take a long time to do. Some real effort, to make it more worthwhile.
She knew it was a risk, to do this at the Burrow. What if someone saw it? Wondered who had carved it, what it meant? But after a few weeks spending time here at the Burrow, Ginny couldn’t bring herself to put it anywhere else. She knew from Harry’s memories that this is where he would want his grave to be. At her new home, next to her new family. She’d been thinking about it ever since Dad and Sirius had learned about Balthazar.
It had been the right thing to do, she felt much lighter now that she didn’t feel like she had to hold herself back from them as much anymore. She wasn’t all the way there in exposing all her secrets… But it would happen in the future someday now. She was sure of it. She hadn’t been sure before, thinking maybe that she would never tell anyone and keep it a secret with just her and Balthazar for forever.
She kept carving with her spells, one little slice in the large stone near the edge of the Burrow property just near the edge of the wards. A place that almost none of her family went too often, it being so close to the edge.
She finished carving the words. She stood there staring at them for over ten minutes after she finished, unable to speak as she stood there.
“Harry Potter. 1980-1989. I Won’t Forget You. Rest in Peace.”
She finally read out loud, her voice choked up as she finally let herself cry and say goodbye to Harry for the last time.
“Goodbye, Harry,” She said, “I’ll always remember you, even if no one else ever will… I hope that’s enough.”
She could use Harry’s memories to check what he might think, but she didn’t. It felt vaguely disrespectful to his memory to dredge up his mental ghost like that. She would just have to be left wondering. She resolved to not search for what he would think about a situation in the future. That’s how she was really putting him to rest. Not using the faded specter of him that remained in her mind anymore. Only the memories in the raw form, versus the experience and emotions of the boy who had sacrificed himself so Ginny could live.
“Goodbye, Harry,” Ginny said again, “I won’t forget. I’ll try to live the dream life you always wished for. For the both of us.”
— — —
“You alright, Ginny?” Olivia asked, “You’ve been a little down today. You’re doing good on the charm. You’ve been able to half cast it a few times by now even.”
Ginny shook her head, “Yeah, I’m fine. Just distracted. How’s it going with Balthazar? It’s nearly the end of July. You must be bored out of your mind by now.”
“Tell me about it,” Olivia huffed, sitting on her bed and leaning back against the wall behind her, “But Balthazar says he’s getting close. I wasn’t kidding when I said I’d sit still as long as he needed if there was a chance for a cure. We’ve started having to use those scary enchanted straps for the last two weeks. Let me tell you, I nearly had a panic attack after he fastened them and I was fully trapped for the first time… He has a beam of concentrated moonlight or something that he shines on me to force me to transform. I… don’t remember anything after that. So it’s almost like the time is passing quicker than it would seem.”
“If Balthazar says he’s close, then he probably is,” Ginny assured her, “I’m sure it won’t be too much longer.”
“Yeah,” Olivia said without much conviction, “Probably. How’s your summer been? Playing outside, having some fun being back at home?”
“Yep. Being grounded stunk for that first week after you came here, but other than that it’s been pretty great. Apparently I’m really good on a broom. My brothers have been trying to convince me to try out for the Quidditch team next year. I don’t know, the whole thing sounds kind of… boring, sort of? My brothers are obsessed with it, but I just don’t get it.”
“Pffft, yeah it’s an acquired taste,” Olivia replied, “I don’t get it either really. But you’d be surprised just how many guys are absolutely obsessed with it. Best to learn a little so you can talk a good game if you have to.”
“I get plenty of that from my brothers,” Ginny said while scrunching her nose slightly, “I ask one question and they tell me the lineage of their favorite players and their famous parents and how good at the game they are. Ron’s been obsessed with Victor Krum from Bulgaria recently. Youngest seeker in a century and all that.”
Olivia shrugged, “Yeah, no clue. You said your family is going to the world tournament, right?”
“Yeah, mid August. It’s a whole thing, my brothers are talking about it constantly. My dad got tickets to the top box somehow. We’ll be sitting with all sorts of important people while we’re there. Eric Potter and Hermione Granger got invited too because of Ron. They didn’t let me invite Alexa or Jack along… Didn’t have enough seats…”
“Hey, Alexa and Jack don’t even care about Quidditch, do they?” Olivia said, “I bet ya that Alexa would be complaining the whole time about how Quidditch wasn’t a real sport or something again. Jack didn’t seem too into it either from what I saw.”
“That’s true. Still, it’d be nice if they were there.”
“You’ve got the whole school year to go around and gossip and giggle with them. You three were practically fused at the hip even with Alexa being a Gryffindor and everything. Do you even know how much I had to hex Preston when he kept complaining about you bringing her into our common room?”
“We didn’t giggle. Or gossip that much. We were just hanging out together and having some fun... Things are going to be different without you as our prefect. I wonder who’s going to be the next one?”
“You’ll find out soon,” Olivia said, “That’ll be your big surprise for the great opening feast, I guess. And C’mon. They were giggles. I was there, heard it with my own ears. All of you were relentless little first years scurrying around exploring the castle and getting into trouble.”
“Meh. Whatever. So what? Nothing wrong with that.”
“Never said there was,” Olivia said with an amused smile as she rested her head against the wall, “Just stating the…” Olivia continued and dragged out the last word with a teasing lilt, “Factsssss…”
“Grrrr. C’mon. Don’t you sit around enough?” Ginny said, “Help me with the charm! I feel like I’m getting close this time.”
Olivia popped up from the bed to a standing position.
“Sure. Let’s look at your wand movement again. Maybe it’s something with that last flick near the end? Thought I saw something off with it last time…”
Ginny finally managed to cast the charm fully by the time it was time for her to leave for dinner. After saying goodbye, she tugged on her familiar bond and Fawkes appeared and apparated her away and back home into the garage.
— — —
Ginny looked around the exotic house around them. There were strange symbols and strange magical plants growing in the yard. There was a giant magical printing press in the corner whirring and moving as it printed out copies of the Quibbler. The Quibbler was owned by Mr. Lovegood who was currently serving some tea to Molly. Ginny didn’t fully understand why she was here right now. Apparently the old Ginny had used to be friends with their daughter, Luna Lovegood.
The girl herself hadn’t shown up just yet, and Ginny was wondering what she should do. She was just standing in the corner not doing much at all.
After another awkward minute or two, a blonde haired girl came down the stairs, appearing cautious as she peeked around the corner. Mr. Lovegood turned and spotted Luna before she could duck away again.
“Ah, Luna! I thought you had forgotten. Our guests are here. Why don’t you show young Ginny around this place again? I was just telling Mrs. Weasley here about the secret vampire cabals running our government. I’m sure they’re the ones behind buying Azkaban.”
Luna perked up a little, “Okay,” She said in an absent tone, “I did think that one made the most sense, Daddy.” She turned to Ginny and seemed to focus more.
“Ginny? I can show you around?”
She asked almost hesitantly.
Ginny nodded and followed the girl out the front door. The blonde haired girl told her about the magical plants for a bit, with Ginny asking some questions about the more interesting ones.
“Wait, you’re in Ravenclaw right?” Ginny asked suddenly as she realized that this was the same girl that had given her a strange look on her first train ride to Hogwarts last year, “You’ll be a third year this term? One of the people who knew the… old me?”
“Yes,” Luna said sadly as she stepped away from the plant she had been telling Ginny about, “We used to be great friends before we went to school. When we were sorted into different houses it was very difficult for us to still be friends without people treating you strangely. You’re so different from how you used to be…”
“I did get sorted into a different house,” Ginny pointed out, “A lot’s happened to me since my first memories. It’s hard to know who knew the old me or not. You used to be the old Ginny’s friend, right? Can you tell me about her? Did she have any friends in Gryffindor, what did she like… any of it? My family’s said some stuff, but… none of them knew anything about what happened at Hogwarts. Busy with their own things I suppose.”
“I don’t know,” Luna said, “You seemed very lonely. I didn’t see you talking with almost anyone between classes or at meals. I was so very disappointed when we were sorted into different houses… Your wrackspurts were all dull and barely present at all when I looked at you. I felt horrible when I heard you had been attacked…”
“Wrackspurts?” Ginny asked, “What are those?”
“They’re invisible creatures that fly around your ears,” Luna said with a distant expression, “Attracted to strong positive emotions, you know. You had hardly any around you for our first year. You seem much happier now. I can feel them as they float around people.”
“Huh. That’s kind of cool. You can feel people’s emotions? Like an empath? Is it like you’re detecting something in the magic they give off or something?”
Luna looked rather startled. “Sensing… magic? No, that… only very powerful people can do that.”
Experimentally, Ginny extended a tendril of her magic and reached it out towards Luna. The girl flinched back, looking rather shocked.
“What was that?” She asked with wide eyes, “It was like a whole herd of Nargles was charging me at once!”
“That was magic,” Ginny said, “You can detect it. Didn’t you know? Have you ever felt something weird when people cast spells around you?”
“Of course,” Luna said, “The Rentils like to dance in their wands just before they cast. Everyone knows that.”
“Yes, that’s the magic in their wands!” Ginny said, growing excited. Somebody else could sense magic too besides her and Eric! Wasn’t this so exciting?
“Watch, more magic coming your way,” Ginny said and extended another magic tendril towards Luna and curled it around in the air like a snake slithering through the air.
Luna’s expression grew distant and she got a dopey smile on her face as she stared at Ginny’s slithering tendril of magic.
“So beautiful…” She muttered, “Almost as good as how it is in Hogwarts.”
“I know, right?” Ginny said, happy that she could finally share with somebody with the same sense as her. Other than Eric of course. No one else understood, even her parents after she’d tried to explain how it felt to them one time.
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“The enchantments are just floating in the air in that place, it’s just ridiculous how many of them are there all the time!”
Luna looked back down, dragging her eyes down away from Ginny’s magic tendril.
“You can see them too?” She asked in a whisper.
“Yeah!” Ginny said, “I thought that… no one else understands what it’s like. I woke up feeling the magic after… what happened to me. It feels so natural, like I’ve always felt it like this. Isn’t it amazing, way better than seeing things with your eyes, right?”
“Right… Can you teach me? To direct the nargles…. The magic like you? I want to make them dance and swirl like that too…”
“Sure! Here, let’s sit down,” Ginny said and pulled the blonde girl to sit cross legged on the soft grass next to Ginny. Luna stared at Ginny with interest.
Ginny tried to remember the lessons Balthazar had given her in the beginning in controlling her magic, “So, I’m going to do something as a little test,” Ginny said after deciding what to do. She extended a very thin tendril of magic out and gently pressed the tip of it onto the back of Luna’s hand. The girl flinched her hand as soon as Ginny made contact and stared where the tendril contacted her. Ginny kept the tip of her magic tendril rooted on the same spot on Luna’s body even as the girl turned her hand around and shifted it to inspect it.
“To be able to do anything like what I do, you’ve got to be able to feel your magic first,” Ginny lectured, “Just take your other finger and put it exactly where you think my magic tendril is poking you. I’ll move it around and just follow it around with your finger. Focus on that kind of warm buzzing sensation on your skin. If you focus enough you can tell that it's stronger or weaker depending on how it spreads out in your body from the point where the magic touches you.”
Luna barely seemed to even register Ginny’s words, too busy closely inspecting her hand. But without looking up, she took her other hand and reached over and placed her finger directly on the spot where Ginny’s magic tendril touched her skin.
Ginny dragged the tendril up and down Luna’s arm, and even up to her shoulder and down to her crossed legs. The other girl remained unnaturally focused and kept her finger with pinpoint precision on the exact spot the whole time without wavering even slightly.
“Wow, you’re good!” Ginny encouraged her, “It took me ages to do anything like that. Now feel your own magic within yourself. Now you’ve felt your outer magic, you’ve got to feel your own too.”
“Okay,” Luna said before closing her eyes for a second. She opened them in only a few moments and stared at Ginny expectantly, “I knew I had my own nargles and Wrackspurts. I don’t look at them too much, they like to hide away if I spend too much time staring at them. But my… magic… I can feel it.”
“Wow, you’re getting this quick. Okay, hold your palm out.”
Luna reached out her hand with her palm upwards to the sky. Ginny put her own hand out next to Luna’s.
“To make your magic leave your body, it’s all about intent. You’ve got to really want it to do so as much as you’ve ever wished for anything in your whole life. It’s almost impossible the first time, since you don’t believe that you can do it since you haven’t ever before. But once you do it once, it gets easier and easier as you go. Imagine a seed sitting right in the center of your palm. It’s just sitting there waiting to sprout. Do you see it? Feel it?”
“Yes…” Luna breathed, with her eyes scrunched shut and frowning intently. Ginny could feel the girl’s magic shifting slightly and pooling in her palm.
“Now,” Ginny continued, “You’ve got to water it with your magic. It’s going to grow into a big strong tree. The seed’s going to sprout, only a little, then into a little sapling, then bigger and bigger as you water its roots with your magic. Just like this. Feel how I’m doing it.”
Ginny very slowly sprouted a little magic tree from the center of her palm as carefully as she could. The magic tendrils were shaped by the image you used to shape them. Ginny had stopped using anything after a while. Her image for the magic tendrils were the magic tendrils themselves. After a while it was strange for her to imagine them as some sort of other object instead of what they actually were.
But right now she used the image of the tree to create the tendril, so the little tree made of invisible magic sprouted from her palm and branched near its far end more and more as it extended upwards. The trunk grew thicker and thicker even as it grew taller, until eventually Ginny stopped. After holding it for a few seconds, Ginny released the magic and the tree wafted away into little wisps of magic.
She noticed that Luna had opened her eyes and was staring at where Ginny’s little tree had been with wonder. “It was so beautiful,” She whispered, “I can really make something like that?”
“Of course,” Ginny said, “You just have to really believe you can and have the right image. The tree worked well for me. But it can be anything really, so long as you have intent for it and picture it with intense detail in your mind. Now your turn. You give it a try.”
“Okay.”
Luna closed her eyes again and her face scrunched. Ginny watched in anticipation as the little seed in Luna’s hand began to be fed by some of the drifting magic that had gathered in the girl’s palm. Slowly, hesitantly, a little nub poked from the top of the little seed and began to grow upwards. Luna’s eyebrows furrowed and she looked to almost be constipated. She was concentrating hard as the little sapling kept growing until it just barely poked above her skin a few inches. Luna’s face started turning red, and then purple as she appeared to focus so hard that she forgot to breathe.
But the tree was growing, and now was now six inches above Luna’s palm and had started branching at its end, the central trunk thickening as Luna pumped in more and more of her magic into the seed below.
“Luna?” Mr. Lovegood called from the house. In an instant, Luna’s concentration was broken and her tree wafted away into wisps of magic. The girl took in a few gasping breaths to recover before looking to the front door of the house.
“Luna? What are you two girls doing?” Mr. Lovegood asked curiously as he stared at them sitting cross legged on the grass together.
“Daddy! I was concentrating!” Luna said in frustration, “You interrupted me… We were growing trees on our palms together in the garden…”
“That’s sweet, Luna,” Mr. Lovegood said with a smile, “I’m glad you girls are getting along so well again. I’ll leave you be. I’ve just finished with the newest edition of the Quibbler and thought you might want to take a look.”
Luna hesitated for a second before staring back at her hand and Ginny.
“Later, Daddy,” She said, “We’re doing important things out here. Ginny’s teaching me to control the wrackspurts and nargles…”
“Oh? How fun. Those are such rascally creatures,” Mr. Lovegood said, “Don’t feel bad if they misbehave, Luna. They go as they will, in and out of your ears as they wish!”
With that, Mr. Lovegood turned around and went back into the house again and kept talking to Molly. Fred and George were in charge of the house and Ron while Molly was gone. Ginny wondered if the house would even still be standing by the time they got back there.
“It really worked!” Luna said in excitement, “I made the tree!”
“Yes,” Ginny said, “Try again, but remember to breathe this time. It’ll be even easier now that you know that it’s possible.”
Luna took a deep breath and her magic rushed into her hand again. She injected the magic into her hand again and the tree regrew. Luna still looked like she was straining, eyes closed and face all scrunched up like she was going to the bathroom. But she remembered to breathe this time at least and the tree kept growing until it was more than two feet tall, leaping out of the center of her palm. She was good, Ginny had a huge head start with what had happened with Harry and her incredible magic sense. But Luna was going quickly too.
Forming the tendrils was the easy part though. The hard thing was calibrating your force when you wanted to use it for telekinesis to move things around. Ginny didn’t really want to get smacked by Luna throwing rocks around at high speeds and draining her magic all at once. Ginny could tell her about it after Luna had gotten better at this first part.
The tree above Luna’s palm stopped growing and she opened her eyes and stared at the space just above her palm.
“I… I did it…” Luna said in wonder as she stared at the space with glazed over eyes. Likely inspecting it with her magic sense since the magic was invisible to her eyes, “The Wrackspurts, Nargles, Rentils. All of them were the magic around me? I could do something like this? All along?”
“It is amazing, isn’t it?” Ginny said with a smile as she admired Luna’s tree, “I’m so glad you can see it too. I guess we’re just destined to be friends again, huh?”
Luna’s tree dissolved as the blonde haired girl lost focus for a moment, “Friends? You want to be friends?”
“Sure? Why not? We’re magic sensing buddies. I know you knew the old Ginny, but I’m not really her anymore… But that doesn’t mean I hate you or anything. We’re just meeting for the first time. Hi. I’m Ginny. Ginny Weasley.”
Ginny held out her hand for a handshake. Luna hesitated before grabbing Ginny’s hand, “Luna. Luna Lovegood. Nice to meet you, Ginny.”
Ginny released Luna’s hand and produced a slithering magic tendril from her hand and had it go upright straight out of her palm.
Luna stared at it in jealousy, “You’re so good at that…” Luna said, “You’re not working with the cabal of vampires, are you? A secret immortal hiding among us? How did you get so good?”
“Well, uhm. I practiced a lot,” Ginny hedged, “I’m human, not a vampire at all… Here, I’ve got one more thing to show you. Then you can just practice as much as you want and improve by yourself.”
“Okay.”
Ginny held her hand out flat upwards with the magic tendril following it. Then without moving her arm at all, she slid the tendril around, the anchor point slipping up and down her arm freely. Completely fluid as it moved wherever she wanted it to go.
Luna’s eyes widened as she stared into nothing and likely sensed what Ginny was doing with her magic sense.
“How?” She asked, “Your arm, it isn’t moving.”
“You don’t have to keep it at a fixed point where it leaves your skin,” Ginny said, remembering just how hard it had been when Balthazar was first teaching her, “It’s just a habit that’s hard to break. I had a lot of trouble with it as I learned. You’ve just got to do it over and over until it becomes natural that your magic tendril shouldn’t be coming from a fixed point but should be able to slide and move freely wherever you want.”
“Okay. Like this?” Luna created a little tree only a few inches tall and concentrated again. After a few seconds it wobbled and shifted an inch to the left in a jerking motion before dissolving.
“I’m going to get it,” Luna stated as if it was a fact, “You said it was about belief, right? Daddy tells me it’s good to believe in a lot of things. I’ve just got to believe this one extra hard, and I can do it.”
“Right…” Ginny was surprised by Luna’s unwavering dedication to this right from the start. She understood how amazing it felt, but it felt like something more than that to Luna.
Ginny helped Luna as they sat together and Luna gradually improved. As much as it hurt Ginny to admit, Luna was a natural at it. Probably more talented at it than Ginny was, improving in leaps and bounds. Ginny wasn’t sure how long she had spent in Teregatt getting tutored by Balthazar. But she was sure that she hadn’t mastered forming her magic tendril in less than an hour. By the time the sun started to set on the horizon, Ginny barely even had to correct Luna about moving her tendrils around freely. Luna was just doing it naturally by intuition by now with Ginny only needing to occasionally remind her about it every few minutes. Not to mention that it was even more impressive because Ginny was sure that Luna had much worse magic senses than she did. Still pretty good, but Luna was improving so much even compared to her disadvantage compared to Ginny.
“Luna! Luna!” Mr. Lovegood said from the door of the house, with Molly standing just beside him, “Time for dinner! Our guests are leaving now! They have to get home.”
“But, Daddy… Ginny…” Luna sputtered as the two of them stood from the ground with groans, stiff from the both of them sitting in place for so long.
“You got it, Luna,” Ginny said, “Now you can just practice. You’re really good. Much faster than I learned any of it. Just remember about the anchor points and you’ll be fine.”
Before Ginny could react, Luna jumped forward and wrapped her in a bone crushing hug.
“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you Ginny! That was amazing! It was just the prettiest patterns I made and now I know what’s been happening at Hogwarts and why other people can’t see how beautiful it is…”
“Er, You’re welcome,” Ginny managed to squeak out, “Nice to meet you too. Glad you like it.”
Luna released her and got a dopey smile on her face and concentrated on her palm and summoned a little tree of magic.
“Thanks, Ginny. I’ll practice every day until I can make mine as pretty as yours. Like bright streamers floating on their own wind… Amazing.”
Ginny felt some heat rush to her cheeks as she blushed slightly at the compliment. “Thanks, Luna. Hope to see you soon.”
“Yeah, see you soon Ginny!”
Mr. Lovegood chuckled, even if he looked a little confused at what was happening, “Oh my. I didn’t realize you two girls would become such fast friends so quickly. I haven’t seen Luna this excited all summer.”
“Ginny was teaching me all about how to make these pretty little trees out of our magic. It was all magic, Daddy! The wrackspruts, nargles, the Rentils, I knew they were all real!”
Mr. Lovegood frowned slightly and Molly stiffened with a look at Ginny. She and Dad knew about her magic sense already so she understood what it meant. Molly had a sour look on her face as she glared at Ginny. Both of her parents had been very strict that it was supposed to be a secret from everyone, even her brothers and Sirius. Actually, she had more forgotten to tell Sirius than anything else. She should probably tell him now that he knew about Balthazar.
So Ginny knew why Molly would be mad at her. But…
“But Luna can sense and control her magic too!” She protested as she looked at Molly, “What was I supposed to do, not tell her about it?”
That caused Molly to look a little confused, her annoyance draining away, “Really? You’re absolutely sure, Ginny?” She asked. Mr. Lovegood looked between the three of them with growing confusion on his face.
“What’s going on?” He asked no one in particular.
“Yes, I’m sure Mom,” Ginny said, “She’s actually very talented at it. In just a few hours she’s learned it basically from nothing.”
“What, is going on!” Mr. Lovegood asked with more force this time, “Luna? Molly? What is this all about?”
Molly sighed, and Luna looked hurt by her dad’s harsh tone in the face of her excitement.
“Let’s go inside, Xenophilius. It seems Ginny has some explaining to do.”
They went back into the house and Ginny and Luna took turns explaining what had happened. Luna was still overjoyed at learning that what she had been seeing was real and wasn’t something she had just made up in her head. She kept creating the trees out of her magic and showing it off to the adults as if they could see it. Xenophilius Lovegood was skeptical, but the two girls and Molly managed to convince him it was real after a few minutes.
It was far past dark by the time they were done talking, the Lovegood’s dinner left to cool in the other room as they kept talking. Luna and Ginny were yawning as Luna’s Dad and Molly kept talking. The man seemed partly in shock at first, but now he was happy for Luna and they were going to arrange a party for Luna to celebrate the discovery. Ginny was invited, on Luna’s insistence before the adults even started discussing who else would go.
But eventually, they were done and Ginny said goodbye to Luna and Mr. Lovegood with drooping eyes and resisting the urge to yawn as she spoke. Molly apparated Ginny home where, surprisingly, the house remained standing and not actively on fire with the twins given free rein over it.
Ginny went to sleep. Who had thought that she’d find somebody else who could appreciate feeling the magic like she could? What a coincidence that Luna had already known the old Ginny too…