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She was in the grove again.
Hermione watched through the trees, invisible to mortal eyes. For the third evening in a row, a human woman – little more than a girl, really – visiting at twilight.
She couldn't be a local. Locals knew better than to come into these woods – especially not after dark, and especially not without a lick of iron from the soles of her shoes to the top of her mottled blonde hair. But she wasn't a tourist either – Hermione had learned about them from her visits to town in mortal guise, recognisable by their cameras and guidebooks and thick-strapped backpacks.
But this girl was different. She had returned to the grove night after night, carrying nothing but the wooden amulets which clanked around her neck and a heavy book. She stood in the clearing within the rough circle of standing stones, sometimes examining the markings carved there, other times simply standing with her eyes closed as if waiting for something. Last night, she had at the centre of the stones and read aloud from the book, carefully mispronouncing her way through jumble of languages that most of her kind would consider dead.
Hermione didn't know what to make of her – so there was only one thing to do.
Ask.
“What are you doing?”
She stepped through the gap between two stones, effortlessly donning her usual glamour – a young woman, about the age of this girl, with skin the shade of weathered bark and hair as wild as wind-whipped brambles.
The girl didn't start at her sudden appearance. She simply turned to Hermione and smiled.
“I'm looking for fairies,” she answered.
Hermione was taken aback, but only for a moment. Then a slow smile crossed her face.
“Really?” she asked. “Why here?”
“Oh, all sorts of reasons,” the girl answered. “Local legends, ley lines. And thank you, by the way.”
“For what?”
“Not insulting me to my face,” she said blithely. “My name's Luna Lovegood. What's yours?”
Hermione hesitated. Names had power that this girl couldn't possibly image – but she couldn't lie when asked a direct question. She could tell the truth, or say nothing.
She made a snap decision.
“Hermione.” A partial name couldn't do that much damage. “I live near here. I saw you yesterday – you were reading something…”
“A summoning spell,” the girl – Luna – supplied. “I've been trying a number of different possibilities, actually.”
Hermione blinked. “Why do you want to meet a fairy? Aren't they supposed to be dangerous?”
Luna tilted her head to one side.
“You must know a bit about them,” she said. “Most people think they're small and friendly, you know? They've forgotten the old stories.”
Hermione raised an eyebrow. “You haven't answered my question. Why are you trying to summon the fey?”
“Because I want to know more about them,” Luna said simply.
Hermione glanced at the book, a thick, leather-bound tome with impressive symbols etched on the cover. She could tell just by looking that it hadn't a scrap of magic within it.
“It won't work,” she said firmly, with her hands on her hips.
But infuriatingly, Luna just smiled.
“We'll see.”
“Are you going to come here every day?”
Luna turned and smiled as Hermione walked into the clearing.
“You come here every day,” she replied.
“Only because you do,” Hermione said.
Luna didn't respond to that. Instead, she bent to examine a flower growing on the forest floor.
“So, did you meet any fairies yet?”
Luna hadn't. Hermione had watched her entire visit, and followed her halfway home, making sure the girl didn't encounter any of the more mischievous of her kind. Someone could get into real trouble looking for fairies in this forest.
At the question, Luna looked up at her sharply.
“Do you think fairies exist?”
“Yes,” Hermione answered automatically.
Luna smiled. “Then – don't you wonder about what their lives are like?”
“No,” Hermione said, honestly. She didn't have to.
Luna straightened, looking disappointed.
“I don't know how you can't,” she said. “I'm really quite desperately curious. I want to know as much about them as I possibly can.”
Hermione couldn't help but smile smugly.
“My friends always say I'm too curious,” she said.
“But not about fairies?”
“No.” Hermione shrugged. “Anything you want to know about fairies you can learn from the old stories. Fairies are tricksters. They won't give you what you're looking for, and they always take more than you can pay.”
“I don't care,” Luna said, simply.
“Even if you get hurt?”
“Not everyone in the stories gets hurt.”
“So you're different?” Hermione laughed, not bothering to keep the cruelty from her voice.
But Luna folded her arms stubbornly.
“My mother always said that the bet you don't take, you always lose,” she said. “Not trying to learn the truth – that would be much worse. Or at least, that's how I see it.”
A part of Hermione wanted to scoff at Luna's naïveté.
Another part agreed with her.
“Hello again, Hermione.”
Hermione had heard Luna's approach, and was sat waiting for her, leaning against one of the standing stones. The sound of her name caught on the mortal's tongue made her shiver.
“Hello Luna.”
“Have you been waiting for me long?”
“I only just sat down.” Hermione smiled at the half-lie – in truth, she had been waiting for Luna's arrival all day. “You always come just before sunset.”
“The transition between light and dark is powerfully liminal,” Luna observed. “That makes it an excellent time to see fairies. Although the effect would be stronger at an equinox.”
“Really?” She was exactly right, although Hermione had no idea how she knew that. “I've never heard that in any fairy story.”
“Oh, it's there somewhere. You just need to have the trick of reading them right,” Luna shrugged it off.
Hermione frowned.
“There's more to you than meets the eye, isn't there?”
“How do you mean?” Luna played innocent.
“I mean…” Hermione hesitated, unsure what to say. “I've never met anyone like you before.”
Luna beamed, and for a moment her eyes shone as bright as the setting sun.
“Is that why you keep coming back to talk to me?”
The next day, Hermione tried to stay away, to keep herself hidden in the trees. She knew she should have left the grove entirely, but she couldn't quite bring herself to, so she stayed watching invisibly.
But when Luna hesitated at the edge of the grove, peering around the trees as if looking for someone, Hermione couldn't stop herself any more.
“You're here!”
Luna's smile made her heart twist with guilt. She wasn't supposed to be spending this much time and effort on a mortal, especially one who hadn't even made a deal with her. This was dangerous territory, the kind of situation that her kind whispered about in hushed tones. This was how you could lose your magic for good.
So why was she smiling so hard her mouth ached?
“Yes, I'm here,” she said. “I wanted to see you.”
“I thought you might not come,” Luna said.
Hermione shook her head ruefully. “I think I'll probably keep coming as long as you do.”
“Ah.” Luna frowned. “Hermione, I'm afraid that – unless I can find what I'm looking for – I'm going to have to leave soon. In a couple of days, actually.”
“Oh.” Hermione's mind whirled. “That's a shame. You're the most interesting thing to happen around here in years.”
“I might still be staying,” Luna pointed out. “I'm trying a new ritual today, look!”
She held up a book – much plainer than her last one, worn and unremarkable – but in Hermione's vision, glittering with magical power. It wouldn't be entirely correct – none of these things were – but this book held rituals which could influence her kind – call them, perhaps even bind them.
That made it immensely dangerous.
“So perhaps the next time you're here, there will be a real life fairy in this circle – oh.”
Luna span to gesture to the standing circle, and Hermione seized her chance to vanish. Luna didn't seem all that surprised. She simply gathered up her book and made her way back towards the town.
Several hours later, in her hotel room, Luna would discover a leaf lodged between the pages of her book, in such a way that it might just have been blown in by the wind while she read the book in the clearing.
The page was entitled 'To Summon A Nearby Fey'.
Luna had never been one to ignore omens. She placed the leaf carefully back into the page as a bookmark, and began planning her next visit to the forest grove.
Hermione couldn't bear to make herself seen. She watched from the bushes, waiting and hoping. When she heard Luna begin the chant, she had just enough time to brace herself before the magic took hold.
Then the spell dragged her into the clearing, forcing her into her true form at last.
She stood at nearly seven feet tall, towering over Luna. Behind her, her wings opened, broad and autumn-bright, and her hair cascaded, thorn-woven, down her cloak of crimson leaves. When she opened her mouth to speak, her sharp-pointed teeth glinted in the golden light of the setting sun.
“Why have you summoned me?”
She expected Luna to cower at the sight of her, or flee, or cry betrayal. But, she did none of those things – although whether that showed courage or idiocy, Hermione wasn't yet sure.
“Hello Hermione.” Luna craned her neck up to smile at her. “You look different today.”
“This is my true form,” Hermione told her. “It is who I have always been.”
“It's very impressive,” Luna observed. “Did you make that dress yourself, out of all those leaves? It must have taken a very long time.”
Hermione felt a warm glow of pride rise in her chest. “Yes, actually, I did.”
“I'd love to see how that works someday.”
“Is that what you ask of me?” Hermione asked, hoping she would fall for the trap.
But Luna shook her head.
“You know what I want,” she said. “I want to know about fairies.”
Hermione frowned. “That's too broad. You're going to have to be more specific.”
“Well,” Luna said. “How about, to start with – three questions?”
“You understand that there will be a price,” Hermione told her. “There must always be a price.”
That was the oldest and most sacred fairy law.
“Name it.”
Hermione hesitated, knowing that her next words could change her life – and possibly doom them both.
Then she decided she didn't care.
“A kiss.” She could barely get the words out. “A kiss, for three questions truly answered. That is my price.”
Luna laughed.
“I accept,” she said. “But really, Hermione – you could have asked for something that I wouldn't have given you anyway. Although -”
Hermione held her breath.
“I think I might need you to be a little shorter,” Luna suggested.
Hermione chuckled. “Of course.”
She took a step forward, and before her foot touched the ground she was once more in human form – although she still wore the fey clothing that Luna had admired.
Luna beamed at her, and Hermione felt like she had taken flight in a way that had nothing to do with her wings. The girl took one step forward, and then another, and then her hand was at Hermione's neck and their lips were pressed together, firm and fearless – and all at once Hermione was captive, and she was freed.
After several slow seconds, Luna drew back, a teasing smile on her lips.
“Now,” she said. “About those questions…”