Luna glanced over her shoulder. Good- there was no one there. The spell was a particularly tricky one and while she didn't mind an audience, there was really only a very small window of time when the stars and planets would be exactly right. People always seemed to need her to explain things, and most of them had no patience at all. She slipped silently into the store-room, narrowly avoiding a yawning house-elf, and snatched up a bundle from the second shelf off the floor.
It would've been so much easier with the fresh stuff right out of the ground, but Professor Sprout had turned her down. There just wasn't room in the Hogwarts greenhouses for nonmagical vegetables, she said- ha! Broccoli, not magical? Obviously she'd never read about the pioneering work of the American wizard, Hohensee. Professor Trelawney hadn't, either, which surprised Luna greatly. Of all the teachers, she'd have thought Professor Trelawney might've read Hohensee's monograph in I Didn't Know THAT!- but, alas, she hadn't. That saddened Luna terribly, it truly did. There was ever so much more to Divination than just the future, if only poor Professor Trelawney would truly open her eyes. . . ah, well.
She made her way across the grounds to the shore of the lake and crouched down, brushing the soil away from the spot where she'd buried her silver-edged knife a moon before. Hohensee had been very clear on this, and she intended to follow his instructions to the letter. The ancient practice of haruspimancy had been outlawed- oh, ages and ages ago, and Luna could see why; you couldn't really use the rest of the animal for dinner after, and haruspexes always smelled awful by the time they'd got their answers. Why it had taken so long for someone to think of looking for the answers to divinatory questions in the innards of vegetables instead she'd never know.
Luna glanced up at the wintry sky. There'd be dinner soon, and she'd be late for it, but no one really seemed to notice when that happened. The important thing was the tiny red dot that hung low in the sky. Mars had to cross into exactly the right place if this was going to work. . . oh, good, there it went. She concentrated with all her might, raised the knife over her head, and whispered, "Who's been trying to ruin my father for speaking the truth this time?"
Mars glittered on the blade as she brought the knife down, slicing the broccoli neatly in half.
no subject
It would've been so much easier with the fresh stuff right out of the ground, but Professor Sprout had turned her down. There just wasn't room in the Hogwarts greenhouses for nonmagical vegetables, she said- ha! Broccoli, not magical? Obviously she'd never read about the pioneering work of the American wizard, Hohensee. Professor Trelawney hadn't, either, which surprised Luna greatly. Of all the teachers, she'd have thought Professor Trelawney might've read Hohensee's monograph in I Didn't Know THAT!- but, alas, she hadn't. That saddened Luna terribly, it truly did. There was ever so much more to Divination than just the future, if only poor Professor Trelawney would truly open her eyes. . . ah, well.
She made her way across the grounds to the shore of the lake and crouched down, brushing the soil away from the spot where she'd buried her silver-edged knife a moon before. Hohensee had been very clear on this, and she intended to follow his instructions to the letter. The ancient practice of haruspimancy had been outlawed- oh, ages and ages ago, and Luna could see why; you couldn't really use the rest of the animal for dinner after, and haruspexes always smelled awful by the time they'd got their answers. Why it had taken so long for someone to think of looking for the answers to divinatory questions in the innards of vegetables instead she'd never know.
Luna glanced up at the wintry sky. There'd be dinner soon, and she'd be late for it, but no one really seemed to notice when that happened. The important thing was the tiny red dot that hung low in the sky. Mars had to cross into exactly the right place if this was going to work. . . oh, good, there it went. She concentrated with all her might, raised the knife over her head, and whispered, "Who's been trying to ruin my father for speaking the truth this time?"
Mars glittered on the blade as she brought the knife down, slicing the broccoli neatly in half.