Black Saturday

Wizard X

This path seemed to go on forever.
But the temperature worked in their favor— neither too warm nor too cold. If the path were miles long, they could trek through without breaking a sweat. Of course, Luna remembered the sign. Falstead lay near.
To pass the time, she looked into her memories. How strange it all was! And rightly so, since the two have always been seen as being strange. All this had begun so innocently, way back on the Hogwart's Express, with her own inquisitiveness about Rahal's history. And now she's seeing for herself what Rahal had told her. She saw the bile-ridden world of Navia, and now she's experiencing this one odd place, Seventh Earth. Elon Isle. It is all a bit sudden, but the thrill of an adventure excited her. Least of her experiences, though, was this one. There's something about Yoshua Solomon that strikes her as simply too dotty to be real.
Just look at him. How'd he meet Enekai anyway? Where did he come from?
Luna pulled a locket out of her pocket and opened it. There they were, all three of them— Ginny, Eni, and herself. Smiling, making silly poses, giggling. Ginny, she always thought to have had a wild and wacky life, having grown up as the only sister in a household of brothers. Yet Eni...
'Eni's a lot of fun, you know.'
Luna looked up. 'What do you mean?'
He said nothing more. There were lights up ahead, though they could see the glow in the sky from a bit away. The soft rumble of cars along roadways also grew louder as they approached. They came upon a highway. A few hundred meters to their right, a hill and bridge with off-ramps. To their left, the highway went on for some time before there was a curve in the trees. Across from them, a chain-linked fence and more scroungy trees, with small businesses and fast-food chains visible behind them.
Solomon pulled a fag from his coat pocket and lit it with his wand, and said, 'Falstead's probably across this highway.'
That made Luna want to fall to the ground. 'What gave you that impression?'
He puffed smoke, dropped the cigarette, and said, 'Just a guess.'

That silly guess was obviously right. They waited for a lull in the traffic and jogged across the first road, taking a pause in the median to wait for the next lull. Once they reached the other side, Solomon helped Luna over the fence and vaulted himself over.
By this time, the daylight was well and fully extinguished, and all that was left was night. Luna thought they must have looked like suspicious shadows slipping through the moonlight.
They passed the back of a fast-food restaurant and walked towards the connecting street. When Luna looked back, she noticed that, again, she could not see Solomon's reflection in the glass.
'Potter should be on 1235 Orson Drive. That's not too far from here.'
'It doesn't look like any place in this town is too far from here.'
Indeed, that was the first thing she noticed about Falstead, was how small it felt. The town itself seemed to be no more than a few buildings that happened to be close to each other, and there were only a handful of streetlights along the main street.
'Falstead's a recreation of small-town Americana; I wouldn't have expected anything less.'
The mention of Americana reminded Luna of Solomon's own nationality. She tugged at his shoulder and asked, 'How did you meet Enekai?'
'Chance meeting, was all.' He turned away from her and continued on down the sidewalk. Luna reached out towards him, but chalked up her loss of the conversation and followed him.
'But what does a "chance meeting" mean? She's an English elf, isn't she?'
'Perhaps.'
And then Luna felt a bit of red in her cheeks. 'What do you mean "perhaps?" Is she or isn't she?'
Solomon stopped abruptly, and Luna felt a part of her heart sink. He turned and said, with a small grin, 'I mean, I don't know exactly if she hails from an analog of what you'd call "England" or not. She's a colourful girl, and doesn't like placing her home in anyone place.'
Luna felt her insides sigh as the tension defused itself, and she pressed on with, 'But what about you, then? You're not from Navia.'
'How do you know I'm not?'
'Enekai said so.'
He laughed. 'So you're just going to take whatever she says at face value, then?'
'Should I not?'
This time, his grin faded. 'To be honest, I don't know anymore.'
He approached the door. With every knock came a metallic clang. Flakes of rust shook off. Luna saw a massive, distorted eye appear in the peephole.
'Lapis lazuli dimlight raksha?'
'Novus ordo septum.'
Footsteps pattered, and the door scratched and screeched against the floor, opening in juts that ripped up the peeling floor.
'Why 'ello, 'ello, 'ello!'
'Long time no see. You're looking khorosho.'
'Same to you, fam.'
Luna peeked behind the boy and saw the scroungy hair of two familiar faces, one donning an ever-familiar lightning bolt upon his forehead. 'Harry!'
'Luna Lovegood? What on Earth...!' said Hermione. She exchanged the same flabbergasted expression with Harry.
'What's all this about then, Mozzy?'
The boy, Mozzy, spoke over his shoulder, saying, 'Old familiar droog of mine. Prettyboy Mighty, the one and only Yoshie.'
'Fancy words coming from a yiffwizard.' They all turned to see Rahal walking up to them. Solomon lit another cigarette. 'You know this, Potter, me old boy. Just look at this girly swot's fine, svelte physique. The kind of queer who loves a bit of the old eyes upon the cheeks.'
'Tease it, you bint!'
Luna felt half of a laugh inside her, but couldn't put aside her friend's vulgarity. Yet she was right— if one didn't get a second look, they might mistake the childly Mozzy for a girl.
'What's the deal with Burgess?'
'It was nothing. Apparently, some really grahzny bratchny got his hands on a Black Saturday not unlike my own—' she pulled the rose from behind her ear '—and mixed it with napalm wine. A few drops over Burgess's grave, and the rest is history. It was really nothing difficult to deal with.'