Salt and Pepper Fest: A Promising Find
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hp_goldenageTitle: A Promising Find
Author:![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p2.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
PaulaMcG
Characters/Pairings: Ginny/Luna, Cho/Gabrielle
Rating: Mature
Word Count: 2800
Content/Warning(s): Established relationships, careers, getting old, visits, only a little bit of sex, only mentions of a trans character.
Summary/Prompt: In October 2033, Luna helps Ginny find a new direction.
(Prompt bywalgesang: Never stop discovering new things. Ginny's realizing she's getting too old to play Quidditch, but Luna encourages her to go traveling to discover new creatures. Luna's always been flexible but Ginny finds it hard to move to something new. Hopeful, romantic, sweet. )
A/N: Thank you for the beta, L!
Read at AO3 or below:
"Why don't you just fly away with me?" Luna says lightly over her shoulder when pushing off the ground.
Ginny watches the broomstick wobble under Luna, who seems to let it decide whether to head across Cymyran Strait or out to the Irish Sea, away from the Isle of Anglesey. In any case it's a relief for her to follow Luna high up, leaving Holyhead behind for now. Perhaps to leave the Harpies, who have let her down.
After all these years... "Do I still have to remind you," she quips, having caught up with her wife easily, despite the stiff shoulder, and finding the familiar solace in her wide open eyes, which are now filled with the glow of October's early sunset, "that your broom is not a beast with a mind of its own."
"Yes, you do. You can't stop teaching me." Luna's voice is sober, but the crinkles around her eyes – the most adorable deep lines drawn by her laughter – won't let anyone forget that she's learnt decades ago not to take herself too seriously. "It doesn't help that you know I'll still do things in my own way."
"Ways."
"Huh?"
Ginny reaches to stroke the shorn side of Luna's head, admiring how the new asymmetric hairdo suits her as well as everything's always done, due to her confidence in her choice. "There's no single way you stick to."
"No. Not with broomsticks or..." Luna presses her temple against Ginny's palm, and ends up following Ginny's lead and flying straight along the shoreline of Holy Island at least for a moment. "That's what you must do now. Get unstuck!"
Ginny feels her indignation flare up, as even Luna is unfair to her. "I've just been all but fired. From the team I gave my best years to, more than thirty years!"
"They've been good years. At least the twenty... twenty-four you've given to me and the girls, too. But who knows how much better the next ones..."
"The years we'll spend in Ireland?" Ginny can't help laughing, as she needs to grab Luna's arm and stop her from swaying towards the open sea again.
"Ireland's a possibility. Among others. You can see that. It means you're now ready to Apparate home."
In Oxford the dusk's already deepened.
As Luna stays in the garden to greet her bats, Ginny's struck by the silence in the house. She catches her eyes stinging when she's passing what are now a storage area and Luna's library.
By the time she's stripping in their bedroom, she lets tears fall down her face. Without Luna watching, she can let her anger out in this way. But no, it's more than that. She's got no role, she's not needed here either, since both Amy and Sunny are now all independent, living their lives elsewhere. She's been proud to guide them to become confident, but perhaps she's not done much, and they've always been like that, and wild and free and alien, never hers.
Having tossed her Quidditch robes on the bed, she's flopped down on it and pulled the sweaty shirt over her head, and stayed sitting with only her breeches on. Now she's startled to catch the image of an old woman with slumped shoulders in the mirror across the room.
Unrelenting, she stands up straight and, with her chin lifted, walks over to face her reflection. She's been satisfied with how slim she is still, at fifty-two, and muscular, too – even though the recent accidents and the ailments that appeared just a couple of years ago have left her arms thinner. At an attempt to raise her right arm, the pain makes her grimace. But there's something she hasn't paid attention to before... Silly as it is, the new sight of loose skin under the brachium upsets her further.
Trying not to stop and assess too strictly her breasts, small and firm as ever, aren't they – not hanging any lower than before, as her cleavage has never been high like shorter witches'... she focuses on her face. When she fakes a mischievous grin, she looks as young as she's thought she does until today. She's needed no make-up or other tricks, and stuck to the convenient habit of braiding her hair instead of worrying about frequent haircuts, and the natural fiery shade... Is there a glint of...?
She fetches her reading glasses from the bedside table, and, bracing herself, steps ever closer to the mirror. There are only a few stray silvery strands visible in her hair. But she must accept the fact that her evolving presbyopia has hidden from her how every part of her face exhibits equal signs of her aging.
Silly, yes! To care about her appearance when she should make decisions about her career! As far as anything's left for her to decide... Then again, perhaps the owners of the team want her out partly because of... her image, the image of an elderly witch who's flown up to her highest peek and been spiralling down for years.
The sound of whistling makes Ginny take off the glasses and wipe her eyes and cheeks with the back of a hand – just in time before Luna appears behind her in the mirror.
"Ah, what a promising find: my mate, and half-naked..." Luna murmurs, cupping her cold hands around Ginny's breasts, but placing her chin on Ginny's shoulder, she peers at the reflection of the tear-stained face. "You are too sad. The Harpies aren't worth..."
"They are... right. I've got old."
"A witch is not old at fifty, or sixty. I'm not, and I'm your age."
"You... don't prove anything. You're different."
Luna has turned out to be right about things she alone believed and couldn't prove for years, like the existence of Heliopaths and Snorcacks. And love, she loves saying. Ginny knows she's said that to others she's loved.
And suddenly there's even more to her desperation. Maybe she's losing not only her work, and the children who were not really hers, but also this extraordinary witch.
Love is real and it never dies, Luna says. It's still back there, left in the moments we've passed by. There's Luna's love in Cho's past and Remus Lupin's, and her vision has just shifted away from it as she's moved on whenever she's believed it right. She made Remus, too, believe it was the best for his daughter to have two mothers. And seven years earlier she left Cho to cherish the treasure of having been the centre of someone's life for six months. In Ginny's life there's been – after idolising one boy and trying to date two – love only for Quidditch and for the family she founded with Luna.
"You don't want to stick with me either?" Ginny closes her eyes, leaning her back against Luna's chest, determined to hold onto the hope that...
"Of course I do. We're growing together. Old, too, someday."
That's what Remus said the first time he'd come to see Amy on Anglesey. He was happy for them because of that. And that was when he mentioned a baby boy who'd lost his werewolf parents.
"That's why I suggest you come with me. Now you could be free to come every time, but if you don't, I'll always come back." Luna swirls Ginny around and walks her back to the bed. "Right here. Or even to that bedsit on Anglesey."
Ginny lies down to watch Luna get undressed. The dear face keeps flicking from a dreamy smile to an impish grin and back, while her voluptuous figure is being revealed gradually in a quirky dance of striptease. Just one of the countless, evolving ways of foreplay enjoyed over the years right here.
Until Sunny, too, went to Hogwarts, and almost always over the holidays, and again after Amy finished school and settled back to stay here year round, Ginny and Luna have spent almost every night together right here in this bed, in this house which they rented just before the adoption, and later bought. Ginny's seldom needed to stay overnight in her old flat close to Holyhead, or anywhere else due to matches. And Luna's dedicated these years to teaching beastology at Merlin College – even though she says she's not the ideal teacher because her students find it hard to follow her thoughts – and her research has been limited to British bats. Only now after both young witches have sorted out the problems they've had in finding employment and reliable partners – Sunny also in her transitioning – has Luna started planning long field trips like those she enjoyed before marrying Remus.
Ginny's not been able to focus on the sensual pleasure, but Luna's made her feel secure enough to ask, "Where do you want to go first?"
"Just to come under the covers with you and talk about it," Luna, now completely naked, replies, pulling at Ginny's breeches. "I've had some ideas. One's a raw..."
Ginny lifts her hips. "A raw idea?"
"No. A-r-r-e-a-u." Luna's fingers travel up Ginny's bare legs and thighs.
Of course. The village near Beauxbatons. "You want to see Cho?"
"I want you..." One finger's found its way onto the clitoris, but now it stops. "All right. I'll explain this idea, and then let's go on and feel the whole glory of who we are together. I really want to see a Magimot. I've visited Cho and Gabrielle only over Christmas holidays, and all the Alpine Marmots hibernate. If we hurry... Now that the climate has changed, late October's not too late..."
Ginny cuts her off by raising her better arm so as to reach behind Luna's neck and to pull the face down for a kiss. "Go on, touch me..." she says against the open smile, pressing the other hand on that teasing finger. "It's settled. We can go south tomorrow."
If the Harpies don't want her to play, Ginny won't stay and discuss any other tasks they might agree to give her on the team.
"Were you...not happy with the Magpies?" Having glanced back at Cho, Ginny looks ahead again to check that Luna's continuing up the mountain path in a steady pace at Gabrielle's heels, and not lingering so much behind as to hear which topic she's taking up.
This change of location has helped Ginny not only literally distance herself from the rejection she's suffered, but at times also lose herself in the breathtaking beauty of the Pyrenees. Still, she can focus on the wonders offered by her senses only for the moments when she's sharing them with Luna. As if she saw the nature only when it's reflected on Luna's eyes, and were able to perceive details only when her surprising descriptions have made her aware of their meaning. This sharing is how they love each other. And she's happy to have granted Luna's wish and followed her here, also because even as little response as exclamations of amazement can inspire Luna to further enjoyable observations.
At the very beginning of their path, Luna stopped to examine closely the fallen yellow and red leaves. Perhaps thanks to Ginny's presence, she, when raising her head, filled her eyes and Ginny's as well with the length and breadth of landscape that was glowing in colours now named as the bold Gryffindor shades.
She also muttered something about having not knitted for ages. Ginny remembers this when Cho steps up beside her, because Cho's scarf with its uneven stripes catches her eye. The two colours keep shifting places, due to a charm which must have been brilliant enough to last for years, perhaps decades, because they are so faded that Ginny can only assume that they've been originally Ravenclaw blue and bronze, chosen for a gift to a House mate.
"Oh, I was," Cho's replied, and she seems to hesitate, perhaps because Ginny's looked absent-minded. "Gwendolyn was a great coach, and it was fine even when I was the only witch on the team. Most of the others didn't live in Montrose either. I had my home and second job in Diagon Alley, but I felt I really belonged, especially after Roger joined."
Of course. The Hogwarts Houses mean so much to most people in their generation. "You left soon after him, right?"
"Yes. But not straight away. Not because I needed to..." Cho trails off, obviously realising that what she's saying could sound like an indiscreet reference to Ginny's situation.
"Cho came to visit Roger and fell for Gabrielle." That's Luna, on her knees beside the path.
"Not straight away," Cho says again. "At least I couldn't believe it would work. Nothing worked for me before, and I didn't know she was ace, too."
Gabrielle has turned back to face them all. When she smiles, she looks as impossibly beautiful as her big sister back in 1994. She's five years... seven years younger than Cho. The difference can't have been significant when they became partners in 2020 or so, but these days again, every year counts to Ginny. Besides, a veela's granddaughter grows old differently, if ever. Ginny's secretly felt it's not fair that someone who looks so sexy doesn't want sex. Not fair to anyone. But Gabrielle and Cho have made each other happy, and that is fair enough.
"I didn't know I was ace." Gabrielle's voice still enchants Ginny, regardless of the words she's saying. "We found that out together. But only after Cho had first seen our theatre at Beauxbatons and decided she wanted to become an actor, if not a dancer like Roger's Jean-Claude. That's how she found a new career."
"Now we have found one." Luna's bent her head so that her nose is almost touching the soil. "Look! These are a Magimot's pawprints."
"No need to apologise." Luna folds her legs on the loge seat under her dress robes and leans back, staring at the flight of the Emerald Eagles painted on the domed ceiling. "I knew you wanted to talk to Cho about Quidditch teams."
Ginny glances around to see that the two of them are still the only ones to have returned from the lobby. They didn't want to spend the whole intermission standing there, because their legs were tired after the hiking.
Having got no response, Luna starts talking about something else. "I'm not surprised if she really fell for this theatre first. She's always loved birds. One love leads to another. If acting or animals can't be your thing, perhaps you can consider at least..."
"Another Quidditch team." All right, this is an opportunity for Ginny to say what's constantly on her mind, even when she's looking forward to seeing Cho on stage. "You make that sound like a small step. But I've learnt I'm a Harpy. It's my team..."
"A team you've always been happy with?"
"No, but I worked to make it better. After I understood, thanks to Sunny, how important it was... And now they do accept trans witches."
"I still don't understand why they stick to the tradition of not accepting wizards. A witch can play on any team. Why not choose another one, like the Magpies? Or the Reading Rogues, so much closer to Oxford?"
"Just choose?" Ginny whispers, having spotted Roger approaching along the row of seats. "Do you think even the Rogues would hire a fifty-year-old Chaser?"
Luna nestles her head on Ginny's shoulder. "And do you think you don't love anything but chasing? Do you need me to show and still explain more about love to you, even though you're the one who's good at..."
"Teaching – that's what I want to do." Ginny's started explaining her ideas to Cho only after reading the reply to her letter. "The Rogues are happy to have me. I'll be an assistant coach, and..."
She has to stop to let out a chortle when she spots Luna, lit by the last orange glow of the setting sun, high up in a tree, where they've failed to see her when coming out to the porch to receive the owl.
Cho has now noticed her, too, but only smiles, caressing the feathers of her fastest, young Funeral Owl. "Are you happy if they offer only...?"
"I wrote that I would be interested only in this role. Because when I was writing the letter I figured out that... writing is how I want to do it, too. The teaching. I'm going to write a weekly column. And make a book about the art of Quidditch. There is no good one, only something about the history of the game."
"That's a great project," Luna says in a solemn voice, winking. "Met with enthusiasm by the Quibbler Publishing." Which is the same as Luna herself.
It's a project Ginny can work on wherever she follows Luna. Owls can carry her manuscripts to the Quibbler. Luna and her loves, including Cho's birds, have helped her find ways to soar again.
Author:
Characters/Pairings: Ginny/Luna, Cho/Gabrielle
Rating: Mature
Word Count: 2800
Content/Warning(s): Established relationships, careers, getting old, visits, only a little bit of sex, only mentions of a trans character.
Summary/Prompt: In October 2033, Luna helps Ginny find a new direction.
(Prompt by
walgesang: Never stop discovering new things. Ginny's realizing she's getting too old to play Quidditch, but Luna encourages her to go traveling to discover new creatures. Luna's always been flexible but Ginny finds it hard to move to something new. Hopeful, romantic, sweet. )A/N: Thank you for the beta, L!
Read at AO3 or below:
"Why don't you just fly away with me?" Luna says lightly over her shoulder when pushing off the ground.
Ginny watches the broomstick wobble under Luna, who seems to let it decide whether to head across Cymyran Strait or out to the Irish Sea, away from the Isle of Anglesey. In any case it's a relief for her to follow Luna high up, leaving Holyhead behind for now. Perhaps to leave the Harpies, who have let her down.
After all these years... "Do I still have to remind you," she quips, having caught up with her wife easily, despite the stiff shoulder, and finding the familiar solace in her wide open eyes, which are now filled with the glow of October's early sunset, "that your broom is not a beast with a mind of its own."
"Yes, you do. You can't stop teaching me." Luna's voice is sober, but the crinkles around her eyes – the most adorable deep lines drawn by her laughter – won't let anyone forget that she's learnt decades ago not to take herself too seriously. "It doesn't help that you know I'll still do things in my own way."
"Ways."
"Huh?"
Ginny reaches to stroke the shorn side of Luna's head, admiring how the new asymmetric hairdo suits her as well as everything's always done, due to her confidence in her choice. "There's no single way you stick to."
"No. Not with broomsticks or..." Luna presses her temple against Ginny's palm, and ends up following Ginny's lead and flying straight along the shoreline of Holy Island at least for a moment. "That's what you must do now. Get unstuck!"
Ginny feels her indignation flare up, as even Luna is unfair to her. "I've just been all but fired. From the team I gave my best years to, more than thirty years!"
"They've been good years. At least the twenty... twenty-four you've given to me and the girls, too. But who knows how much better the next ones..."
"The years we'll spend in Ireland?" Ginny can't help laughing, as she needs to grab Luna's arm and stop her from swaying towards the open sea again.
"Ireland's a possibility. Among others. You can see that. It means you're now ready to Apparate home."
In Oxford the dusk's already deepened.
As Luna stays in the garden to greet her bats, Ginny's struck by the silence in the house. She catches her eyes stinging when she's passing what are now a storage area and Luna's library.
By the time she's stripping in their bedroom, she lets tears fall down her face. Without Luna watching, she can let her anger out in this way. But no, it's more than that. She's got no role, she's not needed here either, since both Amy and Sunny are now all independent, living their lives elsewhere. She's been proud to guide them to become confident, but perhaps she's not done much, and they've always been like that, and wild and free and alien, never hers.
Having tossed her Quidditch robes on the bed, she's flopped down on it and pulled the sweaty shirt over her head, and stayed sitting with only her breeches on. Now she's startled to catch the image of an old woman with slumped shoulders in the mirror across the room.
Unrelenting, she stands up straight and, with her chin lifted, walks over to face her reflection. She's been satisfied with how slim she is still, at fifty-two, and muscular, too – even though the recent accidents and the ailments that appeared just a couple of years ago have left her arms thinner. At an attempt to raise her right arm, the pain makes her grimace. But there's something she hasn't paid attention to before... Silly as it is, the new sight of loose skin under the brachium upsets her further.
Trying not to stop and assess too strictly her breasts, small and firm as ever, aren't they – not hanging any lower than before, as her cleavage has never been high like shorter witches'... she focuses on her face. When she fakes a mischievous grin, she looks as young as she's thought she does until today. She's needed no make-up or other tricks, and stuck to the convenient habit of braiding her hair instead of worrying about frequent haircuts, and the natural fiery shade... Is there a glint of...?
She fetches her reading glasses from the bedside table, and, bracing herself, steps ever closer to the mirror. There are only a few stray silvery strands visible in her hair. But she must accept the fact that her evolving presbyopia has hidden from her how every part of her face exhibits equal signs of her aging.
Silly, yes! To care about her appearance when she should make decisions about her career! As far as anything's left for her to decide... Then again, perhaps the owners of the team want her out partly because of... her image, the image of an elderly witch who's flown up to her highest peek and been spiralling down for years.
The sound of whistling makes Ginny take off the glasses and wipe her eyes and cheeks with the back of a hand – just in time before Luna appears behind her in the mirror.
"Ah, what a promising find: my mate, and half-naked..." Luna murmurs, cupping her cold hands around Ginny's breasts, but placing her chin on Ginny's shoulder, she peers at the reflection of the tear-stained face. "You are too sad. The Harpies aren't worth..."
"They are... right. I've got old."
"A witch is not old at fifty, or sixty. I'm not, and I'm your age."
"You... don't prove anything. You're different."
Luna has turned out to be right about things she alone believed and couldn't prove for years, like the existence of Heliopaths and Snorcacks. And love, she loves saying. Ginny knows she's said that to others she's loved.
And suddenly there's even more to her desperation. Maybe she's losing not only her work, and the children who were not really hers, but also this extraordinary witch.
Love is real and it never dies, Luna says. It's still back there, left in the moments we've passed by. There's Luna's love in Cho's past and Remus Lupin's, and her vision has just shifted away from it as she's moved on whenever she's believed it right. She made Remus, too, believe it was the best for his daughter to have two mothers. And seven years earlier she left Cho to cherish the treasure of having been the centre of someone's life for six months. In Ginny's life there's been – after idolising one boy and trying to date two – love only for Quidditch and for the family she founded with Luna.
"You don't want to stick with me either?" Ginny closes her eyes, leaning her back against Luna's chest, determined to hold onto the hope that...
"Of course I do. We're growing together. Old, too, someday."
That's what Remus said the first time he'd come to see Amy on Anglesey. He was happy for them because of that. And that was when he mentioned a baby boy who'd lost his werewolf parents.
"That's why I suggest you come with me. Now you could be free to come every time, but if you don't, I'll always come back." Luna swirls Ginny around and walks her back to the bed. "Right here. Or even to that bedsit on Anglesey."
Ginny lies down to watch Luna get undressed. The dear face keeps flicking from a dreamy smile to an impish grin and back, while her voluptuous figure is being revealed gradually in a quirky dance of striptease. Just one of the countless, evolving ways of foreplay enjoyed over the years right here.
Until Sunny, too, went to Hogwarts, and almost always over the holidays, and again after Amy finished school and settled back to stay here year round, Ginny and Luna have spent almost every night together right here in this bed, in this house which they rented just before the adoption, and later bought. Ginny's seldom needed to stay overnight in her old flat close to Holyhead, or anywhere else due to matches. And Luna's dedicated these years to teaching beastology at Merlin College – even though she says she's not the ideal teacher because her students find it hard to follow her thoughts – and her research has been limited to British bats. Only now after both young witches have sorted out the problems they've had in finding employment and reliable partners – Sunny also in her transitioning – has Luna started planning long field trips like those she enjoyed before marrying Remus.
Ginny's not been able to focus on the sensual pleasure, but Luna's made her feel secure enough to ask, "Where do you want to go first?"
"Just to come under the covers with you and talk about it," Luna, now completely naked, replies, pulling at Ginny's breeches. "I've had some ideas. One's a raw..."
Ginny lifts her hips. "A raw idea?"
"No. A-r-r-e-a-u." Luna's fingers travel up Ginny's bare legs and thighs.
Of course. The village near Beauxbatons. "You want to see Cho?"
"I want you..." One finger's found its way onto the clitoris, but now it stops. "All right. I'll explain this idea, and then let's go on and feel the whole glory of who we are together. I really want to see a Magimot. I've visited Cho and Gabrielle only over Christmas holidays, and all the Alpine Marmots hibernate. If we hurry... Now that the climate has changed, late October's not too late..."
Ginny cuts her off by raising her better arm so as to reach behind Luna's neck and to pull the face down for a kiss. "Go on, touch me..." she says against the open smile, pressing the other hand on that teasing finger. "It's settled. We can go south tomorrow."
If the Harpies don't want her to play, Ginny won't stay and discuss any other tasks they might agree to give her on the team.
"Were you...not happy with the Magpies?" Having glanced back at Cho, Ginny looks ahead again to check that Luna's continuing up the mountain path in a steady pace at Gabrielle's heels, and not lingering so much behind as to hear which topic she's taking up.
This change of location has helped Ginny not only literally distance herself from the rejection she's suffered, but at times also lose herself in the breathtaking beauty of the Pyrenees. Still, she can focus on the wonders offered by her senses only for the moments when she's sharing them with Luna. As if she saw the nature only when it's reflected on Luna's eyes, and were able to perceive details only when her surprising descriptions have made her aware of their meaning. This sharing is how they love each other. And she's happy to have granted Luna's wish and followed her here, also because even as little response as exclamations of amazement can inspire Luna to further enjoyable observations.
At the very beginning of their path, Luna stopped to examine closely the fallen yellow and red leaves. Perhaps thanks to Ginny's presence, she, when raising her head, filled her eyes and Ginny's as well with the length and breadth of landscape that was glowing in colours now named as the bold Gryffindor shades.
She also muttered something about having not knitted for ages. Ginny remembers this when Cho steps up beside her, because Cho's scarf with its uneven stripes catches her eye. The two colours keep shifting places, due to a charm which must have been brilliant enough to last for years, perhaps decades, because they are so faded that Ginny can only assume that they've been originally Ravenclaw blue and bronze, chosen for a gift to a House mate.
"Oh, I was," Cho's replied, and she seems to hesitate, perhaps because Ginny's looked absent-minded. "Gwendolyn was a great coach, and it was fine even when I was the only witch on the team. Most of the others didn't live in Montrose either. I had my home and second job in Diagon Alley, but I felt I really belonged, especially after Roger joined."
Of course. The Hogwarts Houses mean so much to most people in their generation. "You left soon after him, right?"
"Yes. But not straight away. Not because I needed to..." Cho trails off, obviously realising that what she's saying could sound like an indiscreet reference to Ginny's situation.
"Cho came to visit Roger and fell for Gabrielle." That's Luna, on her knees beside the path.
"Not straight away," Cho says again. "At least I couldn't believe it would work. Nothing worked for me before, and I didn't know she was ace, too."
Gabrielle has turned back to face them all. When she smiles, she looks as impossibly beautiful as her big sister back in 1994. She's five years... seven years younger than Cho. The difference can't have been significant when they became partners in 2020 or so, but these days again, every year counts to Ginny. Besides, a veela's granddaughter grows old differently, if ever. Ginny's secretly felt it's not fair that someone who looks so sexy doesn't want sex. Not fair to anyone. But Gabrielle and Cho have made each other happy, and that is fair enough.
"I didn't know I was ace." Gabrielle's voice still enchants Ginny, regardless of the words she's saying. "We found that out together. But only after Cho had first seen our theatre at Beauxbatons and decided she wanted to become an actor, if not a dancer like Roger's Jean-Claude. That's how she found a new career."
"Now we have found one." Luna's bent her head so that her nose is almost touching the soil. "Look! These are a Magimot's pawprints."
"No need to apologise." Luna folds her legs on the loge seat under her dress robes and leans back, staring at the flight of the Emerald Eagles painted on the domed ceiling. "I knew you wanted to talk to Cho about Quidditch teams."
Ginny glances around to see that the two of them are still the only ones to have returned from the lobby. They didn't want to spend the whole intermission standing there, because their legs were tired after the hiking.
Having got no response, Luna starts talking about something else. "I'm not surprised if she really fell for this theatre first. She's always loved birds. One love leads to another. If acting or animals can't be your thing, perhaps you can consider at least..."
"Another Quidditch team." All right, this is an opportunity for Ginny to say what's constantly on her mind, even when she's looking forward to seeing Cho on stage. "You make that sound like a small step. But I've learnt I'm a Harpy. It's my team..."
"A team you've always been happy with?"
"No, but I worked to make it better. After I understood, thanks to Sunny, how important it was... And now they do accept trans witches."
"I still don't understand why they stick to the tradition of not accepting wizards. A witch can play on any team. Why not choose another one, like the Magpies? Or the Reading Rogues, so much closer to Oxford?"
"Just choose?" Ginny whispers, having spotted Roger approaching along the row of seats. "Do you think even the Rogues would hire a fifty-year-old Chaser?"
Luna nestles her head on Ginny's shoulder. "And do you think you don't love anything but chasing? Do you need me to show and still explain more about love to you, even though you're the one who's good at..."
"Teaching – that's what I want to do." Ginny's started explaining her ideas to Cho only after reading the reply to her letter. "The Rogues are happy to have me. I'll be an assistant coach, and..."
She has to stop to let out a chortle when she spots Luna, lit by the last orange glow of the setting sun, high up in a tree, where they've failed to see her when coming out to the porch to receive the owl.
Cho has now noticed her, too, but only smiles, caressing the feathers of her fastest, young Funeral Owl. "Are you happy if they offer only...?"
"I wrote that I would be interested only in this role. Because when I was writing the letter I figured out that... writing is how I want to do it, too. The teaching. I'm going to write a weekly column. And make a book about the art of Quidditch. There is no good one, only something about the history of the game."
"That's a great project," Luna says in a solemn voice, winking. "Met with enthusiasm by the Quibbler Publishing." Which is the same as Luna herself.
It's a project Ginny can work on wherever she follows Luna. Owls can carry her manuscripts to the Quibbler. Luna and her loves, including Cho's birds, have helped her find ways to soar again.
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Date: 2021-03-09 05:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-03-12 09:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-03-12 09:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-03-12 09:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-03-13 12:44 am (UTC)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kGNBLN_v4g
They hibernate in winter (related to groundhogs), wake up in spring and waddle out to eat flowers. They're adorable.
The whistle is very piercing and meant to warn other marmots that something is up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJqMDUS6hpM
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Date: 2021-03-13 06:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-03-13 03:03 pm (UTC)Another loud-mouthed plant-eating mountain-dwelling cutie pie is the pika, which is said to be the inspiration for Pikachu. Pikas are smaller and faster than marmots, and they tend to live in rock piles high up in the mountains and lay cut plants out to dry in the sun for later storage. Their alarm call is a lower-pitched shorter sharper "Meep" sound (a bit like the Roadrunner in the old cartoons, but just one at a time).
See them here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0f1noOj0Vs
Hear them here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4U9IxhQSTc
Makes me want to go hiking at Mt. Rainier, which I haven't done for years because of various knee and foot problems - maybe this will be the year!
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Date: 2021-03-13 06:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-03-13 03:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-03-13 06:23 pm (UTC)My fanfic is based only on the first five HP books, because I want all my fics to belong to the same ficverse and I started developing it right after the release of OotP. That's why I don't even use the term magizoologist, and my Luna actually chose to follow Remus's footsteps by going to study at Merlin College (which can't possibly exist according to JKR, as far as I know).
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Date: 2021-03-13 07:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-03-13 08:05 pm (UTC)I started writing fanfic before reading more than one short chapter someone asked me to comment on. I, too, first wrote male slash – or rather borderline slash/gen, Remus/Sirius only – and I've written other slash pairings and a bit of het and some femslash only after my eight-year hiatus, which I began about a year after you stumbled across fanfic. And most of my femslash is asexuality fic, mainly about Cho. Remus is still my overall protagonist, even though in some fics like this one I barely refer to him.
So glad to get to know you here in the comments!