Chapter 44
Whatever Taylor had expected Luna’s house to be, it wasn’t a chess rook.
Maybe she was being uncharitable, but it was a black cylindrical tower with crenellations and all, on top of a hill with a stream at the base of it. Castle or Rook.
The house yard was surrounded by a wooden fence and the gate had signs all over it.
Beware of the Rotfang Conspiracy! Pick Your own Mistletoe. Editor of The Quibbler. Wrackspurts muddle the brain.
That and many other signs hung from the gate.
Past the entrance, the path zigzagged up to the front door, and there was a variety of plants Taylor had never seen before.
Luna named a few while they moved up the path. Snargaluffs, Gurdyroots, a strange bush covered in orange radishes she said were dirigible plums. Two old crab apple trees stood on either side of the front door, bearing berry-sized fruits and white-headed mistletoe.
The front door was thick and black, studded with iron nails, with a knocker shaped like an eagle.
Xeno opened the door, turned around and smiled.
“Welcome to our home,” he said.
Luna stopped beside her father. “Please come in,” she added.
The front door led straight into the kitchen, a perfectly circular room with stoves, sinks and cupboards, all curved to fit the walls. Everything was painted in bright colours. Among the paintings there were flowers, birds, insects and what looked like some sort of small people that were neither elves nor goblins.
In the centre of the floor was a spiral wrought-iron staircase leading to the upper levels.
“This is brilliant!” Taylor said, trying to look at everything at the same time.
“You haven’t seen anything yet,” Xeno said, waving his hand. “Moonshine, why don’t you show her to the bedroom? I’ll deal with the trunks.”
“Yes, daddy,” Luna said. She grabbed Taylor’s hand and led her up the stairs.
The floor above the kitchen was a living room of sorts. Of sorts because it was clearly also a workroom. It was a labyrinthine pile of books and papers covering every surface. The ceiling was dotted with small models of creatures that kept flapping their wings and snapping their jaws when they got closer. On one side of the circular room, a printing press worked without anyone supervising it, churning out page after page.
“Daddy’s printing press,” Luna said, following Taylor’s stare. “He’s already printing the next issue of The Quibbler.”
But maybe the strangest of all was a bust of Rowena Ravenclaw, wearing a bizarre headdress.
“Daddy is trying to recreate Rowena’s Diadem,” Luna explained.
“Diadem?”
Luna nodded. “I’ll tell you the story later.” She pointed at the headdress. “The golden parts are Wrackspurt siphons. The small wings at the top are billywig propellers, and the red one at the centre is a mature dirigible plum.”
“Wicked cool,” Taylor whispered.
“Come, my room is upstairs.”
Taylor followed her friend up yet another set of spiral staircases.
Luna’s room, in comparison, looked almost normal.
It had a window overlooking the open terrain around. A pale yellow carpet covered the floor. Her ceiling was painted with images of stars, several moons in different phases, and some strange translucent bird-like thing.
The stair continued another floor up, to what Taylor imagined was Xeno’s bedroom, or maybe a laboratory of sorts, since she knew Luna’s mum had one for her magical research.
By her bed, there was a picture of Luna and a woman who looked a lot like Luna, hugging. Opposite the bed was a wardrobe.
“Is that your mum?” Taylor asked, walking closer to the picture.
“Yes,” Luna nodded, sounding sad.
“She was so pretty,” Taylor said. She turned to Luna, saw her friend’s morose mood and hugged her.
The hug didn’t last long.
Xeno soon arrived at the bedroom floating their trunks. After depositing them on the floor, he rushed down the stairs again. “Food will be ready soon!” he called out from the floor below.
The next hour saw Luna and Taylor unpacking their things and putting clothes in the wardrobe. Nap arrived not long after. Taylor had sent the owl ahead of time to her mum, and now Nap had arrived with a letter to deliver.
Arabelle scuttled around the room, keeping her distance from Taylor. The spider did that whenever Taylor wore Noodle like a bracelet or carried him inside a pocket. She didn’t want to make Bell uncomfortable, but there wasn’t a chance Taylor would leave the Horror alone at school to cause more trouble.
Dinner, when served, wasn’t something Taylor had been prepared for.
It was a type of soup, freshwater Plimpy soup, Xeno proudly announced, with a variety of garden produce. Some steamed, others roasted, along with roast fish and crab apples. There was also bread, and an awful drink Xeno said was Gurdyroot infusion.
Taylor didn’t like the drink, but the rest of the food, although not something that matched normal expectations, wasn’t bad either.
After dinner, Taylor had to deal with the realities of a magical house. The bathroom was on the very top floor, under the crenellations. She had to pass through the magic lab, then Xeno’s bedroom and only then reach the bathroom. It was bigger than the tower was wide, and had large windows with a beautiful view of the surroundings. Taylor didn’t remember seeing windows that big when arriving, so she chalked that up to magic.
After her bath, she returned to Luna’s room and got into bed. She crossed her hands under her head, looking at the pretty paintings on the ceiling.
Aside from magical architecture shenanigans, there were the new types of bugs. Not many, but Taylor found two new mosquito species, a bug that looked like a cross between a praying mantis and a moth, even more different types of tunnellers and a crab-like creature by the stream that had the best sight of any of the creatures Taylor could control.
Most of these bugs Taylor had no idea what they were. It was a real shame she had left Hagrid’s book at Hogwarts and had no way of checking what their names were.
That, however, gave Taylor an idea. Couldn’t she write her own book about magical bugs? She might not know the names, but Taylor knew the monthis (a horrible name for the mantis/moth bug) would flap its wings and disperse some sort of dust that would put nearby bugs to sleep. It was also a fairly brutal hunter, using its scythe-like hands to chop up sleeping bugs for food. Yet, for some reason, the monthis had a preference for earthworms and the like, and could often be found near humid areas, or places where the soil was water-heavy and had lots of earthworms.
“What are you thinking?” Luna asked, pulling the blankets from the wardrobe and spreading it over Taylor.
“Do you know you have a monthis colony nearby?”
Luna tilted her head. “No.”
“They’re like this mix between a mantis and a moth, and they are super interesting.”
Luna smiled. “I call those Snoozlewings.”
Taylor nodded. “I’ll use that name when I write the book.”
Luna crawled into the bed, and laid by Taylor’s side, also staring at the ceiling. “I should write one too.”
“Really?”
Luna nodded. “There’s a lot of magical creatures we don’t know about yet.”
“Wrackspurts?” Taylor asked.
“And more,” Luna said. She raised her hand, pointing at the translucent bird-like thing painted on the ceiling. “That’s what I think a Blibbering Humdinger looks like. Although I haven’t been able to find one yet.”
“You painted that?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“It looks amazing,” Taylor gushed. “I wish I could paint like that.”
“I want to redecorate,” Luna said, her voice full of mirth. “Want to help me paint?”
“Yes!” Taylor said, then added, “But I don’t know how to paint.”
“You just get the paint and the brush, then you paint whatever comes to mind,” Luna explained.
There was a moment of silence. Taylor turned until she was looking at her friend’s face.
“Thank you for inviting me,” she whispered.
“Mm-hmm,” Luna hummed. She also rolled onto her side, and pulled Taylor into a hug. “Thank you for not calling me Loony and treating me like I’m crazy.”
For some reason, Taylor’s throat felt tight. She sniffled, and pulled the blankets closer over her and Luna.
That night, Taylor had another dream. Like all her dreams ever since the Chamber, it was about child Tom. In this dream, she watched him find Diagon Alley without help, and purchase school supplies. It was a bit boring to follow, but watching the dream-cinema with her mountain-size invisible partner was fun.
Morning arrived too fast. Mostly because Xeno was up before the sun, and his heavy steps going down through the metal staircase woke up Taylor. And once she was up, she couldn’t go back to sleep.
Instead of tossing and turning, Taylor dealt with morning ablutions, then girded her loins to take care of her morning obligations.
The first thing was to attend to Her Royal Owlness. Taylor cracked the window open, so Nap could fly out to spread her wings. She knew owls were nocturnal creatures, but it was still very early in the morning and the sun hadn’t fully risen yet. Nap opened her wings but didn’t go out until Taylor had scratched her feather tufts and even offered a hug.
After Nap had left, Taylor extended a hand to Arabelle, who didn’t seem keen on getting closer. “Come on, Bell. I’m taking you and Noodle outside. Don’t you want to explore? I’ll grab you a meal too.”
“Mother,” Arabelle clicked. “I don’t like him.”
Taylor sighed. “I know, Bell, but I couldn’t leave him alone in the castle.”
“Let me bite him,” Arabelle said. “A few bites and I can kill it.”
Taylor had been amazed at how much better her pronunciation was in just a few weeks. She also kept forgetting Arabelle wasn’t some harmless spider.
“No biting. And Noodle is a he, I think,” Taylor chided gently.
“But Mother—”
“No buts, young lady!” Taylor said with her best imitation of her mum’s stern voice, but she wanted to laugh. She’d never imagined she’d be copying her mum this soon.
It took a few more minutes of gentle coaxing, but finally the spider crawled onto the offered hand. Taylor went downstairs, going through the living room and watching the still working printing press. In the kitchen, Xeno was cooking breakfast.
“Good morning, Taylor! I hope you slept well!”
“Good morning, Mr Lovegood. I did, thank you.”
“No Mr in this house,” Luna’s dad said, smiling. “Call me Xeno or Xenophilius if you must.”
“Right,” Taylor looked away. “I’m going out to feed Bell and Noodle.”
“Noodle?” Xeno asked, sounding intrigued.
“Pet snake,” Taylor shrugged.
“I do have some eggs somewhere,” he said, opening drawers and cupboard doors. “Snakes like those, right?”
There was a bit more noise and an exclaimed “Found it!” Soon after, Taylor was carrying a couple of strange eggs in her hands.
“Thank you,” she said.
“Well, off you go,” he said, opening the door for Taylor. “Don’t be long. Breakfast will be ready in a few minutes.”
“Alright,” Taylor said and skipped out of the house.
She jogged down the zigzagged path, out of the gate and toward the stream. All the while, she gathered the fattest and juiciest crickets she could find. Those were Arabelle’s favourites. Once she arrived at the stream, she had the bugs lined up for Bell’s inspection and while the spider ate her fill, Taylor washed Noodle in the cold water, then placed the eggs on the ground.
Noodle hissed. “Fooodsss.”
Taylor blinked. She was almost certain he had said something, but listening closer, it was just hisses. Still, Taylor could feel he wanted to gobble up the eggs whole, instead of breaking the shell and lapping the yolk. She looked around. There was no one nearby. Taylor prodded at the snake’s magic, until he had grown big enough.
Noodle took his sweet time swallowing each egg. After he was done eating, Taylor prodded at his power again so he was noodle-sized once more.
Arabelle had killed (but not eaten) all the crickets Taylor had lined up for her, and was now exploring the surroundings.
“Bell, be careful with birds,” Taylor called out. “And don’t leave my range.”
“Yes, Mother,” Arabelle clicked, before scurrying under a bush and out of sight.
Taylor caught Noodle, who was trying to slither away, placed him inside a pocket and returned to the Rookery. Whatever Xeno was cooking smelled amazing.