(Word Count: 1,780)
The next day Harry apparated over to the Rookery, the home of the Lovegoods. He passed the two dirigible plum trees on either side of the front porch and knocked on the door. He heard the sound of someone skipping to the door and it opened a crack and the curious face of Luna peaked around it to see who it was. When she saw him, her face lit up and she threw the door wide open and hugged him.
"Harry!"
He hugged her back, ruffling her hair. "Hey, Luna, it's been too long! My goodness, are you covered in glitter?" Harry pulled back a bit to look at her properly. Yes, she was covered in paint and glitter. And now he was too. "You cheeky girl!" He laughed.
"Yes, I am! Come in!" She grinned even wider and hugged him harder, but she pulled him along inside. Inside he saw Pandora and Xenophilius sitting on the living room floor, between large printing machines that took up most of the space, also covered in paint and glitter. Between them were several recreations of various magical animals made of paper, cardboard, and sticks. They were painted in wild colors and covered in glitter. In fact, the whole room seemed to have been the victim of a glitter bomb or something.
Perhaps the next few issues of the Quibbler will be featuring glitter pages.
"Mommy! Daddy! Look who's here! It's Harry!" Luna exclaimed.
"Harry! Come sit down with us, we were just making some of our favorite creatures," Pandora patted the floor beside her. Luna let go of him and skipped over to sit by an unfinished creature.
She lifted the paper construct and showed it to him. "I'm making a crumpled-horned snorkack! It's not finished yet, though."
Surprisingly, all of the paper creatures looked really well made, despite the coloration and glitter.
"They all look good!" Harry said, sitting down with them. "Mind if I try making something?"
"Go ahead!" Xenophilius patted him on the head and stood up. "Why don't I make us something to eat as a snack?"
"Plum pudding!" Both Luna and Pandora cheered.
"Righty-o!" Xenophilius cheered back and went upstairs to the kitchen.
Pandora and Luna both picked up their current project and began folding and cutting away at the paper, or continued painting. Harry picked up a fresh sheet of his own. 'What should I make? A dragon? Might as well.'
As they worked, Luna nudged her mother and whispered, "Mommy, Harry had something he wanted to talk about, but I think we distracted him."
"Oh, Harry! Why didn't you say something before?" Pandora asked, putting her flying seahorse down.
He looked up from his terrible beginnings of a dragon. "Well, this seemed fun, and my question wasn't really all that important."
"You don't have to hold any questions here in this house, Harry. Besides, we can continue making our creatures and talk at the same time!" Pandora said matter of factly, and picked up her flying sea horse to continue painting.
"That's right! That's why our mouth isn't on our hands," Luna said, just as matter of factly.
Harry grinned, both amused and slightly baffled, "That does make sense."
"Of course it does," Luna nodded reassuringly, and proceeded to glue a crumpled horn onto her snorkack.
Harry picked up another bit of cardboard to make the tail for his dragon. "Okay then… I recently opened my third eye, and I can now see wrackspurts. Those things creep me out, so I was wondering what you guys know about them. All I know is that they make peoples' minds fuzzy."
"I see!" Luna bopped her fist into her palm in realization. "So that's what's different about you! I was wondering all this time, I was about to ask."
"As your mom has said, Luna, you don't have to hold back any questions," Harry said.
Luna got excited and started firing off a bunch of questions.
"Oh, oh! Do you think the man on the moon ever gets bored of watching us, or do you think he gets distracted by all the moon frogs?"
"What if cauldrons sometimes get tired of being used to brew potions all the time? Should we give it some breaks from potions to make stew out of them instead?
"Do you think Bigfoot and the Yeti are related?"
"Have you ever wondered if portraits gossip about us when we leave? I imagine they have some fascinating things to say. Have you ever talked to the portraits in Hogwarts? What did they say?"
"Do you think MACUSA has some magical reservations for Jersey Devils?"
"Do you think bubbles have their own personalities as well?"
She was about to ask another question when Xenophilius came back downstairs with a platter of bowls of pudding.
"Here we are! Luckily, none of the glitter got upstairs!" He said, presenting the pudding proudly. "One for my dear Luna, One for my lovely Pandora, and one for our good friend Harry!"
He handed them out, and Harry accepted a large bowl of purple pudding. Luna happily dug in, but she continued looking at him expectedly.
"Well… I would imagine he gets distracted by the moon frogs. You should definitely give your cauldrons a break, but I wouldn't use it for stew. Maybe just give it a nice bubble bath. They do seem to be related, maybe they're cousins. I think gossiping is all that portraits can do now, but no, I haven't taken the time to talk to them. Yes, I think they have some reserves. As for the bubbles…" Harry drifted off thinking about his alchemy studies on natures. Now that he thought about it, he can get an impression of them from people and objects as a sort of aura. "Yeah, I think so."
Luna beamed at him, "Yes, I thought so!"
Xenophilus looked between Harry and Luna curiously, the spoon in his mouth. "Oh! Are we asking questions? Who's turn is it?"
"I believe it's Harry's turn, love," Pandora said. "He just told us he opened his third eye. Harry dear, what questions do you have?"
"First question, what are wrackspurts? Why can I only see them now?" Harry asked.
"Wrackpurts are insect-like spiritual creatures that are attracted to anger. They aren't visible with the naked eye, sort of like ghosts when they don't want you to see them. Only, awakening your inner eye means they can't hide from you. That's why you can now see wrackspurts," Pandora explained. "They're attracted to anger, and they crawl inside people's ears and cause confusion, so you don't think straight."
"Most people don't see them because they're always looking with their eyes, not their curiosity," Luna added sagely.
'Tiny spirits attracted to anger?Voldemort should be covered in these things.'
"Are there things I can do to repel them? Like the cork necklace?"
"Of course!" Luna jumped in, "They don't like happiness, laughter, or whimsy! Though, if someone's already confused by them, it would only make them even more angry. If you see someone with a head full of wrackspurts, you just need to make them calm down and they'll go away on their own after a while. Though, if someone likes getting angry, you'll never get rid of them completely. When you have a hard time staying happy or can't laugh, you can wear a cork necklace. They don't like cork."
"Are there any other creatures like wrackspurts?" Harry asked.
"There's a lot of them!" Luna counted them off on her fingers. "Blathermites, Snidgeflaps, Whimwhistels, Fuddlewinks, and Thumbletucks! There's more, but I haven't learned about them yet."
"You're forgetting the Blibbering Humdingers and Nargles!" Xenophilius added.
"What do they all do?" Harry asked.
"Blathermites make people talk too much and begin blabbing nonsense. Snidgeflaps cause people to walk into rooms and forget why they're there. Whimwhistles make you second guess yourself. Fuddlewinks scramble your sense of direction and make you lost. Wearing unmatching socks, or inside-out socks confuse them. Thumblesticks make you remember embarrassing moments for no reason. They mean well, but their sense of humor is a bit off," Luna commented.
"Blibbering Humdingers are mostly positive. They inspire surreal thoughts, or help your creativity by unsticking stubborn thoughts. Though if they hang around too much, you may find yourself being very forgetful, wearing mismatched colors, and or dancing for no reason. Nargles are mischievous bludgers and like hiding your things," Xenophilius explained.
"I see," Harry filed all of this away to go over later. "So, is there anything I should know now that I have my third eye opened?"
"Don't ask us, ask Luna!" Xenophilius gestured to his daughter. "She's always had hers."
Luna puffed up her chest proudly, raising her pudding spoon victoriously in the air. "Just make sure you listen to what your things want! Then they'll work even better! Though it's not always easy to tell." She deflated a bit into a pout. "I wish everything could talk. It would make everything so much easier."
"Do you mean make sure the natures of things used together are compatible?" Harry asked.
"What do you mean?" Luna asked.
"Um, nevermind. I think I know what you mean," Harry said.
"Are you talking about alchemy?" Pandora asked.
"Yeah," Harry said, relieved that there was someone that knew about it. "Alchemy talks about the innate natures of things, so what Luna said reminded me of it."
"Yes, that's exactly it," Pandora nodded. "Other than being able to see the true natures of people and things, having your third eye opened also helps in your divination magic, though it's not like you need any help with that. As a seer, I'm sure your gifts in divination far surpasses what your third eye gives. But to have both gifts together, I'm not sure what sort of things you can do."
Harry spent the rest of the morning together with the Lovegoods. He finished crafting his crumpled dragon, painted green, red, and yellow, and came out of there covered in glitter as Luna scattered another bowl of glitter around the room. Still, it was a good time.
It left him with a bit more confidence about what it meant to have a third eye. Once he got back home, he took some time to closely inspect items around the house. As it turned out, the longer he inspected something the more "aura" he could see of it. The cup he was holding was made of ceramic, and it seemed to like heat. So, maybe he should use this for his hot drinks and they'll stay hotter for longer? Is that what Luna meant?
He would have to do some testing.