A certain Hogwarts professor of runes

Chapter 729 Extra: Lovegood

Luna Lovegood opened her eyes, staring blankly at the ever-changing shapes of the clouds in the sky. Pure sunlight streamed through the gaps in the Brazilian rainforest, illuminating her face; the air was fresh and invigorating. Her husband, Rolf Scamander, was taking a picture of a plant two kilometers away. A small insect crawled on her.

They spent three months in the rainforest searching for a bird described by locals as "a small bird that glows all over and flies with a rainbow trail." An eight-year-old boy said he had seen it with his own eyes by the river, but it vanished in the blink of an eye. The source was undoubtedly reliable, but its veracity could not be determined. It was possible that the boy had simply imagined the rainbow after the rain and mistakenly associated it with some beautiful bird he couldn't name (such as a toucan). Nevertheless, they came, as part of their honeymoon.

They searched the nearby waters and ponds, finding only some beautiful feathers and a few sapphires. Now, those feathers and gems are kept in small boxes, alongside zeppelin earrings, cork necklaces, and pebble ornaments. In Rove's words, "You have to cater to the average person's aesthetic; you have to have one or two normal pieces of jewelry."

Luna, inhaling the rich scent of grass and earth, felt drowsy. She didn't know how much time had passed when she was awakened by the howling of a warning spell. It was Rolf Scamander, returning with a camera and a thick notebook.

"We've found another endangered wild plant," Rove said. "We left a detector nearby to report to the local environmental protection department." He frowned as he watched his wife jump up from the ground. "You're lying on the ground again..."

Luna quickly took out the wand hidden in her thick hair behind her head, pointed it at herself, and white mist evaporated from her dew-soaked clothes. She spun around in the spot with great interest and even jumped twice.

"How was it this time?"

"Okay," Rolf muttered softly.

The two began packing their tent. Today was their last day in the rainforest, and they were both a little reluctant to leave. Halfway through packing, they sat amidst their bags and flipped through a thick photo album.

"These are the local villages and residents..."

"I like them, they love telling jokes," Luna interjected.

"That's right, every three sentences have a joke in them. This is a picture of me playing football with them, look how happy they are! That's a victory smile. I think if it were Quidditch, I might not have lost so badly... You were learning weaving techniques on the sidelines... So who was taking the picture... But I think it's necessary to remind you that the locals use this technique to make fishing tools, not to wear vines on their bodies..."

"At the magic tavern, we met two new wizard friends from Castorbuscher, one of whom insisted on cursing my little finger—a beautiful stun spell, darling..."

"A toucan swaggered into the tent, only to be scared away by the magic lamp."

"Next up are some amazing animals unique to Brazil, all of which you discovered first. It's strange, it reminds me of the first time we met."

He clicked his tongue in amazement, flipped through the album, skimmed over nearly a third of the wedding photos, and stopped at the very first few pages.

Two heads are close together. In the photo, Luna, who looks a few years younger than she does now, is squatting on the ground, reaching out to stroke a creature that looks like a ferret. The little guy is eating a steaming hot dog, its eyes squinting happily. The background is a snowy landscape.

"To be honest, I searched in the Arctic for two years," Rolf said sourly, "and came up empty-handed. I seriously suspect that my grandfather missed some crucial information... but it wasn't a complete failure."

Luna hummed a cheerful tune to herself, the melody sounding like something out of a song by the quirky sisters from twelve years ago—"A Great Victory."

Rolf hummed along.

Around noon, they emerged from the Brazilian rainforest carrying two suitcases, one large and one small. After Rove handed a thick stack of photos to a local wildlife conservation organization, the two reached the border, registered, and used a key to return to the UK.

"Wizards are natural explorers," a border police officer said.

"That's always been the case," Rove replied.

"Hey, I'm talking about the guy who went to Mars," the policeman joked.

……

On the hills near the village of Autri Saint Cachipol, the wind rippled the meadows, and a small house, resembling an overturned boot, stood in the distance.

"My dearest daughter! You're finally back."

Xenophilius Lovegood ran out of the house to hug Luna, who gently patted her father's back. Xenophilius was dressed in filth, his cotton-candy-like hair a tangled mess like an abandoned bird's nest. His eye problems seemed to have worsened, so he used it as an excuse to pretend he didn't see the man next to his daughter until Lovegood greeted him, at which point he reluctantly gave him a very perfunctory hug.

"I'm sorry, I forgot your name, Rod, Roman—"

"It's Rolf," Luna said cheerfully. Xenophilius scoffed, one eye seemingly about to pop out of its socket. He glanced sideways at his daughter's husband with his other eye, silently took the suitcase from Luna's hand, and pulled her towards the black door with his other hand. Rolf Scamander shook his head and followed.

This attitude is considered good.

According to a reporter who sneaked into the wedding but was kicked out midway through, "Lovegood, that old widower, seemed to have planned to cast a curse on his son-in-law during the ceremony, turning him into a giant, colorful fish. Unfortunately, he didn't succeed, otherwise he might have been a contender for the year's biggest news story—witnessed by a host of friends and family, including the Heaps, Potters, Weasleys, Longbottoms, and Scamanders."

But Rolf knew it was pure nonsense, or at least not entirely true.

In contrast, he believed that Xenophirus originally intended to transform him into a horn of a venomous horn, because when he first visited, he had inadvertently revealed the surprise Mr. Lovegood had given his daughter—the gray, spiraling horn he had bought from a smuggler was not the horn of a snorkeling horn but that of a venomous horn, which was extremely dangerous to keep in the house… He paid the price for his honesty.

The room was a perfect circle, like a round pepper shaker.

The ground floor is the kitchen, with the stove, sink, and cupboards adorned with paintings of flowers, insects, and birds. Ascending the cast-iron spiral staircase, the second floor is an even more cluttered living room and studio. An old-fashioned printing press occupies the best spot in terms of natural light, while the rest of the space is haphazardly piled with miscellaneous items—it's clear Mr. Lovegood has had no interest in tidying up during his daughter's absence. Several palm-sized, animal-shaped magic lamps float across the ceiling. Two staircases extend upwards from this floor, leading to Luna's and Mr. Lovegood's bedrooms respectively.

The three spent an afternoon organizing travel information. Mr. Lovegood still ignored Rove, but asked Luna all sorts of questions and showed great concern for her, displaying an amazing curiosity about the various interesting details that occurred during the trip.

"Oh dear, is that so...? This seems to confirm a certain theory."

Luna's keen observation surprised the two men present. Ralph was somewhat disappointed that these brilliant ideas would only appear in the unreliable magazine "The Quibbler," alongside other strange tales such as fire sprites, trembling maggots, and Martian life.

The last one doesn't count.

When Mr. Hyp and Ms. Granger returned from Mars, the answer to this question no longer mattered. People were caught up in a frenzy of fantasy, obsessed with the idea of ​​migrating to other planets in their lifetime. It was only much later that they realized the next time Mars would be closest to Earth would be in 2018.

In the following years, six space bases were established on the moon.

Luna suddenly looked up at the ceiling.

"There are a thousand people above us," she said.

"I'm really worried those people will fall," Xenophilius said, "but what if they can sit on flying broomsticks..."

In the evening, Mr. Lovegood, in high spirits, prepared to showcase his culinary skills. Luna suggested giving Lovegood a chance, saying, "He possesses the entire Lovegood family's culinary recipes." "He's getting a great deal," Mr. Lovegood muttered. "No one but the Garden Engineers has ever had the chance to see them."

He began to recount the last time the Hyp couple visited their home.

"Felix Heap... is a good man, knowledgeable, and witty. I interviewed him about his experiences on Mars and his thoughts on the snorkeling beasts; he said he had owned two. His wife, on the other hand, doesn't have much of a sense of humor..."

Rove busied himself in the kitchen downstairs for a while, then poked his head out from under the cast-iron stairs. Luna looked at him questioningly. "We're missing a few seasonings, but I think we can find them around here," Rove said confidently.

After dinner, Mr. Lovegood's attitude towards Rove improved considerably. He mumbled, "I tasted the flavor of Pandora's cooking. After all these years, it might just be my imagination..."

"The vegetable garden that my mother built herself," Luna said absentmindedly.

The next morning, Luna and Rolf arrived at the headquarters of the Daily Prophet. Both had contributed articles to the Daily Prophet, but Luna had later completely sided with the "family business," while Rolf hoped to follow in his grandfather's footsteps and raise awareness of the survival of magical creatures.

As they left the editor's office, the two ran into someone in the hallway—Rita Skeeter, a journalist who was keen on writing defamatory articles.

Rita Skeeter peered at the couple over her jeweled square-framed glasses. "Let me see... Luna Lovegood, Rolf Scamander, rising stars in the field of magizoology, who had a wonderful collaboration before getting married... The last wedding was too rushed, and I didn't even have a chance to congratulate you both."

"That's because you showed up uninvited and were kicked out," Rolf said sternly.

"It's a rare find," Skeeter waved his hand. "With so many important people gathered here, of course I have to find a way to sneak in. The last time I had this opportunity was two years ago, but I didn't dare to make any moves back then... Did you hear?"

"What?" Rolf asked in astonishment.

"The big events I've been looking forward to have been so boring these past few years." Skeeter's face flushed slightly, and his long fingernails dug into the crocodile skin bag in his hand.

"Quidditch World Cup," Luna suddenly said.

Skeeter glanced at her. "That's right, the 426th Quidditch World Cup was held on the floating island in July 2010. But I've dug up an even bigger bombshell, one that will absolutely blow everyone's mind, even more explosive than Felix Heap marrying his student." She deliberately lowered her voice for the last sentence, then furtively looked around the corridor, as if afraid of being overheard. She warned, "I'm only saying this here."

"Is there something you can't tell me?" Luna asked curiously.

Ralph tugged at his wife's sleeve. Rita Skeeter snorted twice, her sharp gaze sweeping over Luna before landing on the food box in her hand. She provoked, "If you ask me, to become Luna Lovegood's husband, you first need an iron stomach. According to my reliable sources, her nickname in school was 'Crazy Girl,' and she was happy to feed horsemen and giant spiders."

"That's fake news," Rolf Scamander stepped forward, putting his arm around his wife like a man, and said seriously, "Luna hasn't shown any particular interest in the eight-eyed giant spider, and besides, I'm the one cooking most of the time. Want to know the secret?"

Rita Skeeter stared at him without saying a word.

"All you need to prepare are a few special spices, which I discovered when we first met, because I happen to like them too."

Rita Skeeter scurried away in her high heels, looking quite angry. Rolf Scamander smiled, looked down at his wife, and found her staring at him intently, her eyes unblinking.

"So Mom put spices in the food when she cooked?" Luna asked. "Dad tried many times, but he never succeeded."

“I guessed as much. I saw it in the garden when I visited later. Your family is quite tolerant of weeds,” Rolf Scamander said. He gazed into her slightly protruding, pale silver eyes and asked softly, “Luna? Has anyone ever told you that your eyes are beautiful?”

"Yes!" Luna said confidently, "Dad, Mom, Ginny, Ferenze, Vanette, Sandra, Teresa..."

"Wait, who is that name after that?"

"They are all centaurs."

Rolf was momentarily speechless, suddenly understanding how Rita Skeeter felt.

"You can compliment my hair," Luna said understandingly. Rove's gaze swept over his wife's messy, grizzled blonde hair, and he couldn't help but advise, "Darling, I think you'd better take care of your hair, like it did at the wedding, looking beautiful, like flowing gold… Of course, not that dress!"

Which one?

"The one with the rainbow, sequins, and silver unicorn horn headdress."

"But I really like it," Luna said, somewhat troubled.

"Well, you can wear it at home, but for a particularly formal occasion..." Rolf hesitated, noticing his wife's shifty gaze, his heart tightened. The Quidditch World Cup! Tens of millions of people! Merlin! Heap! He quickly spoke up:

"Honey, I've got a great idea! We should get a custom outfit made for the World Cup opening ceremony."

"us?"

"...Yes." Rolf's expression was very tragic.

Luna's face immediately lit up with a smile, and she said in a serious tone, "Oh, you can dress more formally—according to most people, yes, that's it."

"No need, my mind is made up!"

The two walked hand in hand out of the Daily Prophet headquarters building.

"When should we go back to school?" Rolf's voice said.

"Okay, I miss that place."

"If I wear the Sorting Hat again, I think I have the potential to be a Gryffindor..."

(End of this chapter)