Chapter 30
Taylor didn’t mind that people were staring and pointing fingers. She’d missed her mum and hugging her again felt like the world was an even better place. She clung to her mum’s clothes until Luna and her dad came closer.
Luna looked better. Even though she wasn’t smiling, she was holding her dad’s hand and looked serene.
“Mum,” Taylor said, pulling away and wiping her eyes. She turned to the approaching duo.
Xenophilius was even more eccentric than the normal wizard. He had shoulder length hair that looked like candyfloss. He had a cap on his head and a golden chain around his neck. His robes were a bright green that made it impossible to miss him.
“This is Luna,” she said, gesturing at her friend.
“Hello, dear,” Annette said.
“Hullo,” Luna waved back.
Luna’s dad offered his hand. “I’m Xenophilius Lovegood, but please, call me Xeno.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Annette.”
There was a moment of awkward silence, broken by someone in the crowd screeching.
“What in Merlin’s tits is that?”
Taylor blinked, focusing her many eyes on the crowd. Eight of those eyes were from Arabelle. She was staring at the man who had just done the screeching. The portly wizard looked pale, with a trembling finger pointing at the cage.
“Arabelle!” Taylor gasped, then ran back toward her belongings.
She pushed through the crowd towards where she’d left her trunk and Nap’s cage on top of it. She grabbed her trunk and dragged it away from the murmuring crowd and toward her mum. Taylor's dash away seemed to have broken the ice. Luna’s dad and her mum were side by side looking at her, and smiling.
Once she was closer, Taylor took the cage, proudly displaying its inhabitant. “This is Arabelle.”
Xeno waved at the spider. “Hello there, Arabelle, nice to meet you!”
Arabelle clicked her pincers. Taylor thought the gesture sounded happy.
“It's Luna who takes care of her, but she’ll stay with us this holiday.”
Annette was looking strangely at him, at the spider, at Taylor. She shook her head and smiled. She waved at the spider, then turned to Xeno.
“Do you want to come with us today? The guest room is ready. Or we can meet up tomorrow, like we planned.”
“What do you think, Moonshine?” he said, kneeling in front of Luna. “Do you want to go with them?”
Luna nodded, still muted.
Taylor took the opportunity to push the cage onto Luna’s arms.
“Then let’s go!” she said, trying to sound cheerful. She also wanted to get away from the wizards staring at Arabelle like she was some sort of monster.
It was amusing watching the pair of wizards going gaga for every bit of normal technology they encountered.
“These are amazing!” Xeno said inspecting every inch of the car dashboard. He clicked buttons, turned knobs, tried to open panels. “I’ve seen them before, but this is the first time I got inside one.”
Mum had a mix of annoyed and fond smile on her face. Which turned even more annoyed when Xeno turned off the engine for the third time.
“Stop that,” she said, slapping his hand away.
Luna looked interested too, in her quiet way. The back seat was a bit crowded with the addition of Arabelle’s cage, but that didn’t prevent Luna from opening and closing the window like it was the most marvelous thing in the world, or gluing her eyes to the glass observing everything outside.
The drive home wasn’t that long; an hour away. The start of the journey was a bit awkward, until mum turned on the radio, and a song Taylor hadn't heard before started playing. That got the attention of the two wizards.
It was a nice song too, about healing the world and making it a better place. Wizards really needed to hear that one.
“Please, come in,” Taylor heard her mum say after the clicking of keys.
Taylor was now regretting having told her mum she’d deal with the trunks. She was struggling to pull her and Luna’s trunk from the car back compartment. With a final heave, she got one out, then went back to pull the other. Luna was looking at the houses around, a spark of curiosity finally coming back to her eyes.
“We can explore tomorrow,” Taylor said, wiping the sweat away. She dragged the trunks towards the house entrance. “There’s a park down the street. I played there a lot before coming to Hogwarts.”
“I’d like that,” her friend said.
“You’ll love it. There are these swings, but you need to be careful where to hold the chains or the rust gets everywhere.”
The inside of the house smelled, as silly as it was to think, like home. Taylor stopped for a few moments, basking in the sensation of being back. It was like she hadn’t left for months. She couldn’t see her mum or Xenophilius, but could hear their voices on the floor above, near the guest room.
She left the doorway, pulling the trunks inside. Immediately, she got to work removing the bugs from inside the house. In the months she’d been away, a lot of them had sneaked inside. There was a nasty cockroach nest building under the house that she promptly set all surrounding spiders, wasps and ants to feast on them. No cockroaches in the house!
“Welcome, and come in,” she said to Luna.
Luna walked in and peered at everything like she’d never seen a normal house before. She stopped at the photographs hung near the entrance. She had a forlorn look on her face, watching all the pictures from Taylor and her mum over the years.
Taylor walked closer to her friend. “Do you want a hug?”
Luna nodded.
Taylor watched as Xeno stood in the living room, looking around, a glint in his eyes.
“Good, your fireplace isn’t connected to the Floo Network. Don’t let them do it.”
Her mum looked at the fireplace, then back at Xeno. “Why?”
“The Ministry intentionally let the network get infested with Wrackspurts to keep wizards pliable.”
“Wrack-what?”
“Exactly! They make your brain go fuzzy! Don’t let them do it to you too!”
Luna was nodding along with her father’s words. Taylor had a wry grin, and gave her mum a ‘what can you do’ shrug.
“Right,” Annette said.
“I’ll be going home now,” Xeno said, walking to Luna and kneeling in front of her. “You have fun, Moonshine. I’ll be back tomorrow morning after making sure the house won’t flee in our absence.”
“Good night, daddy.”
“You sleep well, my Sweet Plum.”
There were a few more words of farewell. Xeno apparated from their living room; the snap-like sound loud in the small space.
After that, there was even more work making sure Luna had settled into the guest room. Once everything was done, Taylor managed to sneak a private meeting with her mum.
“Mum, I need help!”
“Is something wrong?” her mum asked, sounding worried.
“I have gifts for everyone,” Taylor said, then added, “but I can’t show it to you, it would ruin the surprise.” Annette was now smiling. “But I need a way to package it, without letting Luna know.”
“I can buy some gift wrap tomorrow when I go out to buy breakfast.”
Taylor hugged her mum. “You’re the best mum in the world!”
It had already been late at night when they arrived at the house. After a deep bug clean-up, helping Luna settle into the guest room, a late night snack, and entertaining Xeno’s pet conspiracy theory, and sneaking her stowaways to hide out of view, Taylor was feeling beaten and very tired.
It didn’t help that she hadn’t slept the night before, and only taken naps on the train ride back home.
But she couldn’t sleep. The bed felt cold and alien. She tossed about, turning every few minutes.
A soft knock on her door sometime later disturbed an already restless attempt at sleep. Taylor got up and opened it. On the other side was Luna. Her big, pretty eyes were even bigger in the semi darkness. She was holding a pillow and blanket.
“Can I sleep with you?”
Taylor wanted to roll her eyes. What a silly question. Instead of answering, she pulled Luna inside and led her to the bed. The double blankets and now a warm friend to hug helped stave off the cold and Taylor fell asleep before she could even start counting sheep.
Morning arrived too fast.
Taylor was still feeling tired from the day before, but there was no time to dawdle. Luna was already awake and feeding Arabelle, which was a good thing. In the confusion from the past night, Taylor had forgotten about the spider.
“Sorry, Bell,” she said, opening the cage and letting the spider out.
Arabelle crawled out and onto Luna’s hand.
“Come, let’s introduce you to mum,” Taylor said, then had to stop the spider from biting Luna. “And no biting,” she chided gently.
Taylor could smell heaven coming from downstairs. They headed down, and a quick glance at the wall clock told Taylor it was almost ten in the morning.
“Good morning, sleepyheads,” her mum greeted from the kitchen. “Brunch will be done in a minute. Can you set the plates, Taylor?”
Taylor did as asked, picking up the china and placing it on the table. “Is Luna’s dad coming too?” she asked, trying to decide if they needed one more plate.
Annette walked into the room, carrying a lot of food. “I’m not sure, and hello Luna. Did you sleep well?”
“Yes, thank you.”
Taylor put one more plate on the table. Better safe than sorry. After that, she made introductions.
“Mum, this is Arabelle,” she said, indicating the spider on Luna’s hand.
Annette glanced at the spider, then Taylor. “I know, dear. You told me yesterday, remember?”
“Yes, but Arabelle is a magical, talking spider. She’s just too young to speak.”
Arabelle clicked her pincers and waved her forelegs.
“I… see?” Annette said.
“She’ll probably grow really big too. Her daddy was almost the size of this house, but don’t worry! We have a plan for that. Luna is researching a shrinking solution that we’ll use to keep her small.”
Taylor glanced at her mum. Annette placed the food on the table, then slumped onto a chair.
And what a spread it was. Mum had cooked a whole weekend breakfast. There was bacon, sausages, fried eggs, baked beans, grilled tomato, grilled mushrooms, and toast.
More than looking good, it tasted divine. As much as Taylor loved Hogwarts food, it didn’t compare to her mum’s cooking. Luna seemed to appreciate it too, because her dreamy friend ate more than she usually did, even let out a small burp at the end, immediately clapping a hand over her mouth with wide eyes, much to Annette’s amusement.
Taylor took that distraction to sneak a few bits of food from the table. Those she’d give to Dee, Dum, and Bity later.
Then Taylor helped Luna change into some of her old clothes, so they’d blend in better around the neighborhood. Arabelle went back into the cage. Then they were out exploring, with their first destination the park down the street.