Taylor neither confirmed nor denied her friend’s theory.
Luna didn’t pressure her into admitting or explaining anything either; she never did. For the rest of the night they talked about what Taylor had been up to, sleep all but forgotten.
“Thestrals,” Luna said once Taylor had told about the invisible creatures. “They are lovely and very friendly.”
“Really?”
Luna nodded. “They’re like horses, but winged and like to eat meat. We should go visit them later. Hogwarts has a lot of them.”
“And what about the other one? The cat thingy?”
“Maybe it wanted to see who was passing through its territory?”
Taylor doubted it was that simple. That creature had been trying to ambush her and warning it off hadn’t worked, but she didn’t argue. From thestrals and cats, she described meeting Firenze, his prophecy, finding out what Hagrid was up to, and then returning to the castle.
“I’d like to meet Aragog,” Luna said after the tale was done. “He sounds wise.”
“What kind of spiders are they?”
“Maybe Hagrid’s book has something?”
Taylor didn’t remember seeing anything about giant spiders there, but it was worth checking it out again, just not now. She was comfortable under the blankets, and getting up for a book felt silly.
“You see everything,” Luna said after the silence had lingered long enough.
Taylor shrugged uncomfortably. “Yes, but also no,” she whispered back.
Explaining the details about how her power worked made her feel double scummy. She felt bad for intentionally letting Luna believe in a lie, and for all but telling her secret when she promised mum she wouldn’t.
Luna tilted her head.
“I could see everything, yeah, but do you pay attention all the time to everyone in a crowd?”
Taylor swallowed another pang of guilt. She could pay attention all the time with no problem at all. She’d realized not long ago that these small parts of her mind paying attention through her bugs rarely got distracted, or bored. It was just something she chose not to do, because there were things she was better off not knowing.
Like Percy and Penny in that empty classroom on the sixth floor.
Ew.
“I don’t even know what Firenze meant,” Taylor blurted out, trying to take her mind out of things she didn’t want to know. Her ears and neck burned in embarrassment. “Do you think that the horror is the great evil? And what about the warrior and the innocent? Are they going to die too?”
“Daddy says you should always do your best to ignore prophecies,” Luna said. “If you try to understand them, you never do until it is too late. If you try to prevent them, you’ll make it happen. If you try to change them, you’ll make it worse.”
That sounded exactly like prophecies in fantasy stories. It was Taylor’s turn to tilt her head, squinting her eyes. “And how do the stars sing about anything?”
“They are quite chatty,” Luna said, her face serious. “You just need to pay attention.”
Taylor squinted harder, while Luna looked as innocently earnest as ever. She had no idea if Luna was playing a prank or not.
They stared at each other for a few more moments, with Taylor still not being able to tell if it was all a joke. Instead of worrying about that, she tackled Luna and tickled her friend until she was laughing so hard they woke up the whole room.
Oops. She forgot what time it was.
Taylor didn’t get any time to sleep after that. Once they managed to calm down Mira and Harriet, it was already breakfast time. Nap had landed on top of Luna and Taylor like a disaster cannonball, flapping wings and hooting. The fat owl had gotten bigger and heavier.
Taylor knew this all too well: Nap wanted her breakfast.
And then that morning, Taylor shambled towards breakfast with Luna and Nap half perched onto her head and shoulders. Nap was so big that Taylor’s head alone wasn’t a sufficient perching spot. She ate, fed her owl, and discreetly asked the castle for coffee and milk, startling nearby students when the steaming pot and cold pitcher showed up. The coffee was still bitter and horrible, but she endured.
The rest of the morning was spent trying to work on homework to little success. At lunch time, Taylor gave one excuse or another, then fled back to her dorm room and snuck under the covers for a well deserved nap.
She woke some time later, unsure how long she’d slept, to find out that she wasn’t alone. Luna had joined her at Hypnos embrace at some point. Instead of getting up and working on the many mysteries (and homework) waiting for her, Taylor cuddled closer and went back to sleep.
As much as Taylor wanted to ditch everything and go back to the forest to meet with the spiders, barter with them for secrets, and find the one clue that would help her unravel this web of mysteries, she couldn’t. There were just too many professors and prefects on the lookout for the heir or any abnormalities among the student population.
Getting to class on Monday without having finished homework would be a red flag Taylor didn’t want to raise, specially because she never missed any before. Monday she had three assignments to deliver: Another Herbology essay about mandrakes, a Transfiguration translation and calculation for a switching spell, and a third poem about Lockhart’s adventures.
She didn’t really care about Lockhart’s, but missing Herbology homework would have Professor Sprout looking at her with that disappointed grandma look she often gave the Slytherins. McGonagall would purse her lips and shake her head in disappointment.
None of which Taylor wanted to endure, which also meant no more adventures that weekend.
Come Monday after lunch, Taylor arrived early to Transfiguration with Luna. They weren’t the first ones to arrive. There were a few Ravenclaws in the classroom already, but more importantly, Ginny was here.
She sat on her usual seat, alone and looking like someone who hadn’t slept in weeks. Her eyes and nose were puffy, like she’d been crying a few moments ago.
Taylor glanced at Luna, who probably had some mind-reading powers of her own, because she nodded and gently pushed Taylor toward Ginny.
Taylor plopped on the seat besides the Weasley girl, startling the redhead so bad she almost leapt out of the chair. She looked at Taylor with wide, fear filled eyes.
A few minutes before the start of class Nneka, Ginny’s usual partner, arrived. She glared at Taylor, but didn’t make a fuss about the seating arrangement. She found a empty chair at the back of the classroom and sat there, arms crossed and face in a scowl.
Professor McGonagall arrived soon after and collected the homework. The day’s class was another practice at the switching spell, this time using the calculation they had just handed in with homework. In the murmur of chanting and wand-waving, Taylor thought about what she knew regarding Ginny.
When she wasn’t crying, or writing fervently in her diary, or being ambushed and tormented by the twins, Ginny was mostly obsessed with Harry Potter. She’d become even more fixated on him as the days passed. Several times, Taylor had observed her through bugs trying to muster the courage to approach the boy, only to flee before doing anything.
There was something she could say to help Ginny, the correct magic words that would make her maybe-friend let go of the current state of suffering and enjoy magic school. Whatever those words were, she hadn’t got a clue.
When she opened her mouth, instead of coaxing Ginny into opening up, or maybe just talking about anything, she blurted. “Luna and I are preparing a tea-party later today. You should come too.”
Which was stupid. They weren’t preparing anything, and she hadn’t even asked Luna about it before saying that.
Ginny looked startled for a moment. She opened her mouth, and Taylor saw the denial before the words were spoken. She couldn’t have any of that.
“Nap will be there too, and she gets really prickly if we don’t feed her, so don’t forget to bring treats.”
Ginny opened her mouth again, but professor McGonagall had been just walking by their table, severe as always. “Less talking, more magic.”
Taylor turned back to her practice, ears burning and wondering why the hell she had said that. The Weasley redhead ducked lower, muttering something that Taylor couldn’t hear.
Transfiguration passed in tense silence. At the end of the class, before scarpering away, Taylor gave Ginny directions to the same room they used for the tea-party with the Grey Lady. Their decorations were still there and no one had even ventured into the place. She got her bugs started with cleaning the place of dust, while she prepared to tell Luna about their new evening plans.
“I invited Ginny to a tea-party later today.”
Luna tilted her head.
“I said you’d be there too,” Taylor added hastily.
“Alright,” Luna said.
Taylor was left feeling stupid again. Of course Luna wouldn’t get mad over a tea-party.
The last class of the day passed with Lockhart flashing his pearly whites at children, then reading out-loud the submitted poems. Not an ounce of magic practice to be had.
Once that torture was over, they had about one hour before the tea-party. Taylor scrambled this way and that, trying to get a good tea-blend, the pot and cups and everything set up. Luna was responsible for the food.
No one asked who cleaned the room, which was a plus on Taylor’s opinion.
So it was that, just after sundown, Taylor, Luna and a sleepy Nap waited for a visitor that was taking her sweet time arriving.
“She’s going to be late,” Taylor said, checking Ginny’s progress with her bugs. “And she isn’t alone.”
“The more the merrier,” Luna said happily.
Taylor grunted. She wasn’t sure if Nneka would make things worse or not. She wasn’t even sure why she had invited Ginny to a tea-party.
“I’ve been eavesdropping on later year classes,” Taylor said out of nowhere. She had just realised that there was no need to keep her spell practice a secret from Luna anymore. “Would you like to practice new spells with me?”
Luna stopped, then turned fully toward Taylor. Her expression was difficult to read. A moment later, the dreamy girl stepped closer and gently hugged her friend.
“I’d love to,” she said in her whispery voice.
Nap killed the moment by flapping her wings and trying to perch on both their heads at the same time.
“Nap, no!” Taylor said, annoyed and trying to catch the lazy owl.
Luna giggled at their antics, and traitorously, didn’t join the chase.
Ginny and Nneka arrived to find Taylor running after her owl and making a mess of the room.
“Nice deco,” Nneka said, looking at the silk straps still tied to the windows.
“Welcome,” Luna wave them in. “Please have a seat.”
“Nap! Come here!”