Inflecto

"...and then Barry said Spiqs have super-ears, and I said no they didn't, they just had very, very good eyes..."

Luna smiled demurely as she listened to her father talk about his day at the office and reached for the bowl of biscuits she had managed to make without burning. She bit into one and was satisfied, for once, with the taste. She never was much of a cook. Her mother had always been good at that sort of thing...

"And Jil agreed so we printed it like that, and Barry was so mad he went around throwing paper balls at us all day--the man has some temper, doesn't he?" Leo Lovegood looked to his daughter as he shoved a biscuit into his mouth.

Luna nodded in agreement and Leo smiled. "This is really good, Luna-Lu."

"Thanks, Dad."

"Your mother would have been proud. She always wanted to you to learn to cook like she did..." said Leo wistfully, the chunk of biscuit half-hanging out of his mouth.

"I know," said Luna. The recipe was one of her mother's--she had tried it many times, but somehow the biscuits always turned out wrong, whether she had forgotten to add the baking soda because she had seen a bluebird out the window and got distracted, or gotten the recipe right but burned the biscuits because she had wanted to make onion earrings and forgotten that the oven was on. But this time she stayed put in the kitchen, shades over the windows and carefully measuring the ingredients, mixing just right, and watching the lumps of dough rise through the oven window until they were golden-brown, just as the card said.

"You look just like her, Luna-Lu..." The chunk of biscuit was still sitting on his tongue.

Luna was used to hearing this. Everyone who had known her mother said the same thing, and Luna could see it every time she stared at the picture of the flower-crowned woman on her dresser. She was often laughing in her long white dress, playing with her miniature replication that was Luna, hiding underneath the frame and singing songs. It was Luna's favorite picture--really, one of the only pictures she had of her mother. There were only three in the house. One in her father's room, one in her own, and one on the mantel atop the fireplace. They each got to share a little of what was left.

Leo had finally swallowed the biscuit. "Nothing like your father. Just Renata."

Luna shook her head. "No, I look a little like you, Dad... don't I?" Leo was blond, with fair skin and blue eyes. A lot like her mother, but different.

Leo stared at her silently for a moment before answering. "Yes, I suppose you do, Luna-Lu." He grinned, and although Luna knew he was still somber and thinking of her mother, she was grateful that he tried. Sometimes Leo very sad and quiet--it wasn't at all like the usual jovial and joking man with the loud voice--and retired to his room for a long, long time... Luna did that sometimes too, but with her father it was different. She supposed he had never fallen out of love with her mother.

Luna loved her mother very much, but she knew that being in love was far different, and besides, she had not known her mother that long. She sometimes felt guilty for nor being able to conjure up many memories of her mother. In nearly all of her short recollections she and her mother were alone, talking or playing together, or learning how to knit on their old couch. And no memories of her mother and father together, unless you counted the odd one, in which they'd watched the fireworks her parents created with their wands--they were celebrating something, Luna couldn't recall what, though--when she was about six years old. There was a man there with his hand on her shoulder, and Luna had been smiling at him, but she couldn't see his face clearly. Why couldn't she remember it right? Luna wished she could, she wanted to so badly; just to see that picture of her family together in her mind, all three of them together. But she couldn't.

"You've been spending a lot of time up in the attic lately," her father remarked, waking Luna from her reverie. His eyes regarded her seriously though his tone was light.

Luna chewed on a green bean. "I've found some more of Mum's old things up there," she explained.

"Really?" Leo perked up slightly in interest, though he sounded a little sad. He rarely went into the attic. "What did you find this time?"

"Some of her old lab notes," Luna replied. "She was really smart, wasn't she, Dad? She made up lots of new spells and things. Some of them--I think they're research notes--are a little hard to understand, but I'm trying..." She trailed off, having just caught sight of her father's face. Leo looked absolutely dumbstruck. Luna knew this look--her father often had it when a Brilliant Inspiration hit him, but Luna doubted this was the case. "Daddy?"

Leo shook his head slightly and leaned forward, folding his arms upon the table. "Luna--" he lowered his voice a bit, although Luna wasn't sure why--there wasn't anyone else in the house, not even a ghoul like the one the Weasley family had. "Did you tell anyone else about this?" he asked carefully.

Luna stared tentatively at her father. She had never seen him like this before, and she wasn't sure how to react. "No," she answered finally. It was a lie--she sent one of her mother's spells off to Harry in a letter, but no one was supposed to know she had contacted Harry at all. The only reason why she even knew about Harry's Dangerous Mission was because Ginny had spilled the beans. Luna suspected the secret was not told in true confidence; it was angrily spat at her by Ginny, who seemed to be bursting to complain to someone about the unfairness of not being brought along. Luna had listened to her rant quietly, and while she could understand her friend's frustration, she couldn't tell if Ginny was angry because she honestly was ready to be in the fight against Voldemort or because she was missing out on an adventure with Harry. She didn't like pondering the answer.

Luna had taken the initiative to get in touch with Harry, despite Ginny telling her "the bloody bastard said nobody is supposed to contact him at all". He was one of the few people she could really talk to and, to be perfectly honest, Luna liked him quite a lot. She probably wouldn't ever admit it to anyone, though. But that was another level, another thought for another day, and her thoughts zoomed back to her father.

"Good," said Leo, looking somewhat relieved. "Your mother's work was private... we should keep it that way... for now, at least," he added, attempting a smile. "Now, do you know if Junical's around?" Junical was the Lovegoods' owl. "I've just remembered--something I forgot to do at the office..."

Luna smiled back and told him Junical was sleeping in the tree out front. Leo left the table with a big grin and Luna was reminded that the two of them did look alike. After all, they both wore the same plastic smile.

She wondered who he was writing to.