Luna(tic) (Marauders Era)

3. Half-Truths, Hopes and Other Things Hidden in Smiles

Luna was still staring at the weeds with her head stuffed full of unpleasant thoughts when the visitor, whose name, Luna realized with a jolt, she didn't know, came out the back door. Why he came out this way, Luna wasn't sure. But he did, and in the process, stepped right through Sam, who cursed rather foully for no one but Luna to hear.

"Hello Miss Everleigh," the visitor greeted with a small, pleasant sort of smile Luna wasn't sure she trusted. "Would you mind if I joined you?"

Luna frowned, glancing back into the house. She couldn't see her mother in there, but she didn't suppose the man would be here if her mother hadn't allowed it, so... "Okay," she agreed, scooching over to make enough space for all three of them to fit on the steps. Sam might not be solid, but he still didn't like being sat on.

Smiling graciously at the acceptance, the man sat down next to Luna on the steps, a position that was rather at odds with his put together appearance. Scowling at the man for taking his spot, Sam sat huffily on Luna's other side, crossing his arms and glaring out at the unkempt garden. Luna pulled her gaze away from him to focus back on the visitor.

"Your mother," the man said after a moment of adjusting his robes, "says you don't like to use your magic in front of people."

Well. That was an odd way to start a conversation. Odd enough that Luna bit her lip, frowning at the man for a moment before she nodded, because he seemed to expect a response.

"Understatement," Sam pitched in and Luna could practically hear the eye roll in his voice for all that she didn't dare look his way to confirm it. "She hates it."

This was true, of course, but at the moment, Luna was very glad the man couldn't hear Sam. She didn't think the visitor needed to know that. And frankly, she didn't want him to either.

"Why is that?" the old man asked gently. Gently enough that it tugged on Luna's mind. Gently enough that it made her wonder what he might be hiding.

Really, even without that tingle of suspicion, she wasn't sure if she should answer that, and with it.... Well. It seemed an odd thing for a stranger to ask. But when Luna looked up at the man, his eyes were kind and understanding and she remembered that this man had magic too. That maybe he knew things that would help. And at the very least, he was unlikely to be like those children who hated her for it.

"Because people are mean to me when they see it," she told him, her voice small and fragile as she held her hands in her lap, twisting them as though she could wring the fear from her skin.

"Also an understatement," Sam muttered, but his words were softer this time.

And of course, this was also true. They weren't just mean. Mean was when they called her crazy. When they saw the magic, they were straight up cruel. Her mother always said it was because ordinary people were bound to be jealous and fearful of those extraordinary things they could neither have nor understand. But Luna didn't believe her. She believed a different truth. She believed that they were cruel because she was different. Not because she was extraordinary. She was just... off. And off made people uncomfortable. It made them angry. It made them cruel.

"I see," the old man said now, pulling Luna from her usual wandering thoughts. She looked at him, trying to make herself focus on the visitor as he watched her for a long moment with those soft, kind eyes that suddenly seemed to have something else behind them. Something darker. Something... hurt. But he blinked and it was gone, replaced by a placid sort of expression.

"Well," he said, "I come from a place called Hogwarts. It's a school for people with magic. People like you," he added with a little smile. "I came to offer you a place at that school," he continued. "I gave your mother a letter that says so, but I wanted to tell you myself. We'd like to have you there."