Silver Royalty

-- Silver Royalty --

[Luna used to be her little princess. And now she is Luna's angel.]

"Shhh...quiet...quiet. Mustn't make any noise, must be quiet..."

A dusty trapdoor, inlaid in the wooden floor, is lifted up; just an inch. Silvery grey eyes peer through the small gap hesitantly. They glance from left to right and back to left again before the trapdoor is flung open completely and falls over backwards onto the musty floor with a muffled thump.

"There we go," the ten-year-old whispers, picking a small, grey-striped kitten up and climbing into the attic after it, "There we go, Shadow. We'll have to close it again; we don't want to fall down, do we?"

The kitten purrs attentively before stalking off in between boxes, sniffing at everything. The young girl brushes a strand of blonde hair out of her rosy face, consequently wiping dust from her hands all over her nose, and closes the trapdoor gently. For a few moments, she stands immobile, listening--no sound meets her ears and she turns back to the task at hand. Her gaze dances over the masses of cardboard boxes towering in the room, silver eyes sparkling with excitement.

"It's here somewhere, Shadow," she mutters, crouching down and crawling over the dusty floor, unaware of the dirt now prominent on her clothes. Her pale hands pull the first box open expectantly. She examines the insides, moves the contents around a little. "Wrong one...this is from the old house, Shadow, see? Look, there are some old clothes...but we haven't got time to play dress-up right now. Shadow?"

A sneeze is the answer and the kitten glances around the corner before jumping onto Luna's lap.

"Don't sniff around the dust, Shadow, it makes you sneeze. And Daddy says there might be Parumpies here. Do you know what Parumpies are, Shadow? Nope," she interrupts herself, opening another box, "wrong again. Those are Daddy's old books. He's read them so often, he says, he knows them by heart. There are also some of my old books in here, Shadow. But I don't read them anymore--I'm too old for them. They're for children only. But I'm going to Hogwarts now, I'm growing all big!"

However, Luna still flicks through Sleeping Beauty and her eyes are slightly glazed over as she drinks in sentence after sentence of her favourite book. Eventually, the kitten becomes bored and yawns heartily, then decides upon scratching at the cardboard boxes.

"Oh no, Shadow!" Luna exclaims, pulling the bundle of fur back onto her lap. "You can't do that, Daddy will know we've been here." She closes the book full of regret and lays it aside to take it down with her afterwards. She's grown up, but her Daddy always says it's a tragedy to leave a book unfinished, and even though Luna knows Sleeping Beauty off by heart, she hasn't finished it today. It will have to come with her.

But for now, she must go back to searching. "Somewhere here...no, not this carton...somewhere here, it must be somewhere here though. Shadow, come on, help me. You wanted to see it, now you have to help me find it. Wrong carton again. Maybe in this one? No, Shadow, don't touch that. It's the secret home Daddy built for the Parumpies, you mustn't disturb them in there."

Luna falls silent; curious, the kitten comes closer and stares at the young girl. She is sitting cross-legged on the floor, motionless, a small white box in her hands, which is about the size of a book. Once, there was thin, graceful writing on it--but now it has faded, due to being touched again and again, due to having been looked at many, many times. The box looks simple and nearly boring; but Luna is absolutely mesmerized, utterly fascinated: she is just gazing, transfixed. Slowly, she starts turning it, looking from every single direction, like the goblins at Gringotts do when they inspect diamonds and gold bars--Luna has seen them many times before. She feels like one right now; she, too, is holding a treasure in her hands. An inquisitive, "Miaoooooo," wakes her from her dream, pulls her out of her fantasy world, her bubble.

"I've found it, Shadow."

As if the kitten understands, it clambers onto Luna's lap, its dark eyes set on the box, just as Luna's silvery grey ones. When Shadow has stopped moving about, Luna pries into the box with trembling fingers, her eyes shining, cheeks flushed. The lid tilts backwards by itself; on the inside of it, there is a delicate painting of a fairy with flaxen hair, sitting on a rock, crying gentle tears. Flowers and plants surround the fairy; outlines suggest a pool of clear water at the bottom of the rock.

"Mummy painted it," Luna whispers.

Her finger touches the picture to prove to herself it is real; then she tears her gaze away, focussing on the contents of the box. Luna sets it down on the floor and pulls out a stack of wizarding photographs. She looks through them, explaining who is on them and what is happening.

"I remember this one," she says, watching a young girl with blonde pigtails on a swing as a tall, smiling man pushes her higher and higher until the child squeals with glee. "We went to the playground together, all three of us: Me and Mummy and Daddy. Mummy took the picture because I always wanted Daddy to push me--he would push me higher up than Mummy could, you know. This one..." she continues, frowning a little at the next picture, "I don't remember that day. But Daddy told me once. It's a funny house, isn't it, Shadow? It's called The Burrow. When I was younger, I used to go there to visit Ginny. That's the girl with the red hair, the one with the toy dragon. The others are all her brothers--she's got a lot of them. I can't remember all their names though. Only that one, he's Ronald, and that one there is Fred, and that one there is George. They're twins, but I don't think they look that alike. They're easy to tell apart, really--"

Her voice stops abruptly as Luna reaches the next picture. She holds it up closer to her face so she can see better, so she can grasp every single detail on it. There she is--her mother. Her mother is dressed in the same way as the fairy on the box, with a pastel-coloured dress and wide, translucent sleeves. The costume is made of layer upon layer of thin material, each coloured ever so slightly different from the other: Peach, lavender, rose, pale blue, mauve, apricot, yellow, lilac, lime green... It's difficult to tell the colours apart, but that is exactly what the young girl at her side is trying to do. Her blonde hair is not bound together and she is wearing a blue-grey, silky dress with puff-sleeves. A little silver crown sits on her head, askew as she cocks it to the side, counting the layers of Mummy's dress. Mummy smiles; her cheeks are rosy and she has brown freckles dotted on her small nose. Her complexion is fair; she looks fragile with her rose-coloured lips and her curly, chestnut hair that surrounds her face gracefully. Luna's chubby arms clasp tightly around Mummy's right leg, and she buries her face into the material of the fairy dress. Mummy laughs and has to hold to the railing of the staircase that leads to the upper floor on her left to not fall over. She bends her thin, delicate frame down to her five-year-old daughter, whispers something to her ear and sets the crown straight again before pressing a kiss to Luna's forehead.

Princess Luna and Fairy Dawn

Ol' Hallow's Eve, 1986

"My Mummy is a fairy, Shadow," Luna finally speaks, her gaze fixed upon her mother's features again, after having glanced at the writing on the back of the photograph. "She was a fairy, at least. I think she could have flown if she had really wanted to, you know. She must have been a fairy. How else would she know so many stories about them, Shadow? She must have been--otherwise, how could she have painted fairies? I can't paint fairies, so I can't be one. But I can paint witches. I don't know if Mummy ever painted witches and wizards. I've only got the fairy pictures she gave me.

"But now I don't think she is a fairy anymore," Luna continues thoughtfully, stroking the kitten on her lap, "She was a fairy here on earth. But now she's up in the sky, Shadow. Now, she's flying up in heaven and now she is an angel. I know you are an angel, Mummy, I know you are.

"Isn't it funny, Mummy? You always called me your little angel, but now it's you who are one, now it's you that can fly in the sky. Maybe, Shadow, maybe she didn't want to fly on earth because she was afraid she would turn into an angel and not come back? Maybe that's why she stayed a fairy... But if she had flown up as a fairy, maybe she would have taken me with her, and maybe we could both be angels now."

The kitten meows loudly and distracts Luna by starting to play with her fingers. "You're right, Shadow. If we both were angels, then you and my Daddy and your Mummy Dusk would be all alone and I wouldn't want that to happen, that's not nice. Only Mummy is an angel," Luna reasons, then pauses shortly to gaze at the picture once more. "You know, Mummy, sometimes you would call me your little princess, too. I don't know if it was such a good idea. It might have been better if you only called me your little angel, because angels always have company in heaven, like fairies on earth. It's something different with princesses. I don't mind it, of course, Mummy, but I wonder if you ever thought of a princess's fate. Because they are always alone. Look at Sleeping Beauty. Aurora is alone as well. You're right, she has her fairies for company, and later she is not alone anymore. But, Mummy, you were my fairy--and now you're gone."

Luna quietens, still gazing at the picture. She sniffles a bit and wipes a tear away with the back of her hand, while the kitten on her lap is silent, watching as the light pours in through the dirty window, revealing the dust that is flying around the stale air.

"Luna!"

"Oh dear," Luna chokes, "I'm coming, Daddy!"

Shadow jumps from her lap as Luna hurriedly places the pictures back into the box. She takes one final look at the Hallowe'en picture; instead of putting it back in the box with the rest however, she slips it in between the pages of Sleeping Beauty. A moment later, the white box with the fairy painting is shut and placed back into the carton Luna had found it in earlier. She grabs the book and kneels down next to the trapdoor, opening it and quickly starting down the ladder. Shadow watches from the top as she descends the first few steps before reaching up and picking up her kitten. Rapidly, Luna transports her book with the picture and Shadow to the floor; then she clambers back up and shuts the trapdoor leading to the attic.

"Luna!"

"I'm here!"

Shadow has already disappeared down the staircase to the kitchen, leaving Luna alone at the top of the landing. The ladder that leads to the attic is a fixed one and therefore everything looks perfectly normal, except for the dust flying around the corridor. Luna seizes Sleeping Beauty and rushes to her room, grabbing her rucksack filled with things she will need for the long journey on the Hogwarts Express. She slips the book in next to the latest issue of The Quibbler and, with a last glance at the bedroom she will not be seeing until Christmas, Luna closes the door behind her, heading down the staircase to the ground floor.

Her father is speaking to Shadow as Luna enters, "...And you pay attention to her, do you hear, Shadow? Oh, there you are, Luna."

"We're not late, are we?" she asks anxiously. For nothing in the world does she want to miss the train to school.

"No, not yet, no need to worry. Here's something to eat if you are hungry and a drink," he says, attempting to pack the things into Luna's bag.

"Oh, I'll do it, Daddy," Luna says and takes the items from him. Daddy doesn't need to know that she took the picture; if he saw Sleeping Beauty, he would surely pull the book out and find it.

"Where have you been, Luna?" he asks suspiciously, looking at her queerly. "You are full of dust." At that moment, Shadow decides to sneeze again, before starting to lick the dirt off its fur. "And so is Shadow."

"I was in the attic, Daddy," Luna answers, grabbing a packet of Bingo Brilliant's Biscuits and a few chocolate frogs, stowing them away in her bag as well.

"How often must I tell you, Luna," her father sighs, "You shouldn't go up there. It's dusty and dirty and--"

"I was only checking on the Parumpies, Daddy," Luna answers, looking at him with wide, innocent eyes. "You know, just in case they wanted to come out today, and if they had, I'd have missed them because I won't be back before Christmas."

"Still," he says, pulling a ball of fluff off Luna's hair, chuckling. His finger grazes her cheek. "Do you really have to go? I'll be here all alone, you know--"

"Daddy, stop it!" Luna laughs, hugging him. Her father picks her up and twirls her in a circle before setting her back down on the floor, brushing a bit of dust off her nose this time. "You're not alone anyway--"

"But you're going away, and you're taking Shadow with you--"

"But Dusk is still here, you know," Luna replies, nodding at an empty basket in the corner where the milky white adult cat usually resides. "Well...once she's back from hunting, she'll be here with you."

"You're right, you're right. The adults stay here. The little ones, so you and Shadow both go. Are you ready then?"

"Yes, Daddy."

"We should get going then. The Hogwarts Express won't be waiting forever and we don't want you to be late for the beginning of the school year--you'd miss the Sorting and then you'd have to sleep in the dungeons..."

"No!" Luna exclaims with big eyes, "I won't have to sleep in the dungeons, right?"

"--And you'll have to fight the Fanshoms to pass the Sorting Ritual--"

"Fanshoms? Stop it, Daddy, stop it! There are no Fanshoms at Hogwarts. Stop saying those things, you're only doing it to waste time and then we'll miss the train!"

"You'll miss the train," her father corrects gently. "Right, off we go. We're using Floopowder to the Leaky Cauldron. Shadow," he says, placing the kitten into a wicker basket, "There we go. You carry it, and hold on well to the basket; otherwise you'll lose Shadow. Tuck in your arms and speak clearly. I'll be right after you with your trunk."

Luna nods and takes a pinch of glittering powder from a linen bag her father offers her. She steps up to the empty fireplace and throws it in. Instantly, emerald green flames jump up, crackling as if the fire had been burning for days.

"Hurry up, Daddy."

"I will. See you on the other side, princess."

-- The End --