Chapter 25: The Story of a Spell

Help me in keeping this work alive, become a patron today!

Patréon.com/shanefreak

If you find any error, do comment!

....

When Maca arrived at Lovegood house, Xenophilius Lovegood was preparing lunch in the kitchen, while Luna had set three place settings on the small table - Maca had informed them that he would be coming.

"Good afternoon, Maca," Luna said calmly as she heard the movement from the fireplace, having already arranged the plates. She turned around peacefully.

"Hello, Luna!" Maca looked at the dreamy girl in front of him and felt an indescribable emotion - she hadn't changed one bit.

"It's been a while, are you doing well?" Luna said in a light tone, as if it wasn't a formality but just something she casually said.

Maca sat down casually on the nearby sofa, smiling and nodding. "I'm doing fine, how about you?"

"I don't know... maybe okay," she tilted her head, seeming to really think about recent events.

At this moment, Xenophilius Lovegood also walked over, wiping his hands.

"Welcome here to celebrate Christmas together, my little reader," he said happily. "Have you read the recent issues? I've written a lot about the Crumple-Horned Snorkack, and the readers' reactions have been good!"

"Oh, yes! That's great, you can tell me more about it later," Maca said. Of course, he hadn't read any of them, as he didn't have the time for that.

Although Xenophilius Lovegood made sure to have the owl bring him a copy of each issue, not a single one had been missed.

"Alright, alright, of course! But let's have lunch first, it's already prepared," Xenophilius Lovegood said. "I'll be busy after Christmas, you know, the Year-End Special of The Quibbler - I've prepared a lot of interesting content."

He pulled Maca to the table and served him a bowl of soup.

"...So, after Christmas, can you accompany Luna to visit the Muggle city?" he said. "I remember you said you were familiar with Muggles, and I think you'd be better than me."

"Oh, of course!" Maca nodded.

"That's great! Luna has always wanted to see the Muggle way of life - she always loves the Muggle decorations I buy for her," Xenophilius Lovegood said, looking at his daughter with a loving gaze.

Luna turned her head and showed Maca the sweet cherry earrings hanging from her ears. With a slightly misty smile, her big eyes twinkled, genuinely happy.

Lunch continued, and Maca chatted leisurely with the father and daughter in front of him while intermittently pondering the divide between Muggles and wizards.

In the magical world, still predominantly composed of pure-blood wizards, the boundary between wizards and Muggles remained distinct. Despite the efforts of many pioneers, the magical world had seen the emergence of many highly skilled Muggle-born wizards, but the deeply ingrained concept of division remained firmly rooted in the hearts of most wizards.

Maca didn't have much thought about this. He just wanted to enjoy his peaceful life. He had a self-awareness of being an ordinary person, and even as a wizard, he was just an ordinary wizard.

He left the complicated and troublesome matters to great wizards like Dumbledore to solve.

"Luna, where should we go first? I think..." Maca put aside the jumble of thoughts in his mind and casually discussed their post-Christmas itinerary with Luna.

Time always passed quickly at Lovegood house, mostly due to Luna's personality. The longer he spent with her, the more easily he was influenced by her whimsical thinking, and the whole world seemed to become ethereal.

When with Luna, Maca no longer suppressed his sensitivity, because it was hard to find sadness in Luna's presence. The two of them would often laugh uncontrollably over trivial things and silently enjoy the tranquility in their unique and comfortable environment.

In a daze, Christmas Eve had quietly arrived.

Xenophilius Lovegood was busy in his upstairs workspace, while Maca and Luna leaned against the outer wall of the house, gazing at the endless night sky, just as they had done the night before.

The stars had been scarce on recent nights, mostly obscured by a thin layer of clouds. The crescent moon appeared and disappeared on the celestial vault, casting a silver glow over the entire hillside.

"Mom gave me her favorite thing as my name," Luna looked up at the moon, smiling quietly as if she were talking to someone else, not sitting next to Maca.

Maca nodded, regardless of whether Luna saw it or not.

"What about you?" Luna asked, "How did you get your name?"

Maca laughed, a laughter without a clear reason, but Luna didn't pay any attention to it.

"I gave it to myself, I've always been called this name," Maca said, "Always."

"That's nice too," Luna said, "Mom often says that a wizard's name represents a person's life path - where they come from and where they will go."

Maca stopped laughing at her words, wiping away the tears from his eyes. He couldn't even tell if he was happy or sad.

"Yes! It represents where we come from, and perhaps it will also tell us where we will go..."

The next morning, Lovegood House was besieged by owls...

A large number of owls of various colors, breeds, and sizes were scattered on the slope of the lawn in front of the house, as the roof and window sills were already occupied by other owls - they had all come to deliver Christmas gifts to Maca.

Maca was surprised to discover that he was so popular. Normally, very few people would come to talk to him, so this was unexpected.

When Maca was awakened by a series of pecking sounds, he hurriedly rushed out and brought all the gifts inside, piling them up in the small living room of Luna's house.

At this moment, Luna, half awake and even more drowsy than usual, walked out of her room wearing her red and green plaid pajamas.

"Maca, is this the gift you gave me?" She half-opened her eyes, holding a small envelope in her hand and asked vaguely.

"Yes! Open it and see! It took me the longest to make this out of all the Christmas gifts I've given this year," Maca cheerfully said, "Merry Christmas, Luna."

"What about my gift? Where's my gift?" Xenophilius Lovegood, standing nearby, was as excited as a child as he asked Maca.

"It's coming right up." The smile on Maca's face became even clearer.

"Um... yes, what is this?" Luna gently tore open the envelope seal and pulled out a thin card filled with small letters and symbols.

"It's a spell," Maca said, "It's the spell that went wrong during the experiment. I've completed the analysis."

Without needing to say it explicitly, the father and daughter immediately understood - this was the spell that had taken Luna's mother, Pandora Lovegood's life, and had caused Xenophilius Lovegood to lose his wife!

The father and daughter exchanged glances and both noticed that the other's eyes were slightly moist.

Maca was right. They didn't hold any hatred towards this spell - they didn't harbor hatred towards anyone or anything. The only emotion they had towards this spell was regret.

Luna's mother, Pandora Lovegood, was someone who had a great passion for experimenting with charms. Due to the unexpected nature of the experiment's failure, she didn't leave behind any words before she died. And this spell had almost become her only last wish.

When Xenophilius Lovegood buried his deceased wife, he buried her experiment notes along with her, hoping that it would allow her to continue doing what she loved in that unknown place.

But he never expected that Luna, who had witnessed the entire process at the scene, would firmly remember it in her heart. Even more unexpected was that Maca, solely based on Luna's casual description of the scene, silently found and completed the analysis of the spell.

For Luna and her father, Maca's Christmas gift was even more precious than anything else.

"...Thank you, thank you!" Xenophilius Lovegood's voice trembled noticeably.

And Luna's sleepiness completely disappeared. She wordlessly walked towards Maca, embracing him tightly and not letting go for a long time. In that moment of intertwined gazes, Maca keenly sensed that Luna, at this moment, was completely devoid of her usual dreaminess. Her large eyes were filled with determination.

After a long while, when they separated, Luna held the thin card in her hands and her expression became hazy again. The scene seemed to tell Maca that what he had just witnessed was just an illusion.

"Alright, Luna, come help me open the gifts together! Let's see who sent them all. I don't remember making so many friends!" Mac

a laughed.

That night, Xenophilius Lovegood prepared a large amount of food, including roasted meat, turkey, meat dipping platters, and more, as if he had used up all the savings for this special night.

Of course, Lovegood House had various special foods, all sorts of them, which dazzled Maca.

They indulged in eating and drinking, sometimes cheering happily, sometimes whispering. When the atmosphere reached its peak, Luna, who usually didn't like to dance, even pulled Maca to dance.

This Christmas dinner, with only three people, intertwined with their laughter until late at night...

At dawn the next day, when the sky was just beginning to brighten, Xenophilius Lovegood used the Disillusionment Charm and brought them to a graveyard outside Plymouth.

Maca stood silently beside, watching Luna ignite the card filled with analysis formulas, burning it little by little in front of her mother's tombstone.

It was only then that Maca learned from Xenophilius Lovegood's mouth that Luna's mother, Pandora, was originally from a Muggle village not far from here.

Maca looked at the small, lonely figure squatting in front of the gravestone.

Her waist-length, waterfall-like golden hair revealed a beautiful and innocent halo in the rising sun.

"May the guardian spirits protect."

Maca was touched, silently watching the young girl in front of him. As he murmured to himself, a faint silver-white glow enveloped him.

__________

Find any error and become helper of the day!

&

Don't Forget to Vote!