After her date with Aaric, Luna entered her house with a happy smile on her face to greet her mother, who had been recently resurrected by her.
She stepped inside with a skip in her step and giggled happily as she saw her mother having some tea on the couch.
"How was your day, Mum?" she asked after giving her mother a big hug and receiving a kiss on the cheek from the woman.
"I just had a quiet day, my love," Pandora Lovegood said as she caressed Luna's cheek and held her close beside her.
"What's that?" Luna asked as she observed a spherical clay structure with wings on the table in front of Pandora.
"An intelligent species I am making for the planet you gifted me," Pandora explained gently, running her hands through Luna's hair.
Luna had given the planet she had made for Pandora as her realm for her as a demi-goddess to help her get accustomed to her new powers.
"How was your date with Aaric?" Pandora asked, taking a sip of her tea.
"It was fun," Luna exclaimed excitedly. "You should meet the little dragon we were playing with, he is so cute." she added.
Pandora listened intently as Luna told her about the gold dragon she had met in the dreamlands and how she had made friends with the dragon.
"Aaric made this for me from the scales he gifted us," Luna said, showing a beautiful gold necklace that was radiating potent natural magic in the surrounding.
She then explained how Aaric had mutated a dragon from their own world by bathing it in the energy of the scale he had gotten.
"How did he do that with just a scale?" Pandora asked with a tilt of her head.
"He told me he seeped magic through the scale to change its signature," Luna said with a finger on her chin.
"Hm. That must have taken impressive rune work," Pandora commented with a hum; she had assumed correctly that Aaric had not used divinity for all that.
"Oh, yes. They have a goblin clan on their island. They are masters at rune work," Luna said with a proud nod.
Pandora had always loved studying magic, and the concept fascinated her. However, with how she had died researching magic once, she was reluctant to delve beyond her limits and was not more interested in experiencing her divinity.
She knew that her fears were irrational, as magic could be an open book to her because she was a higher being now.
She glanced at her lump of clay and saw it shimmering as the wings on the sphere started fluttering.
"It's awakening," Pandora whispered, and Luna also leaned in toward the shimmering clay as a new species was being birthed.
The spherical core turned into a marble-sized, dense sphere of shimmering matter from which dozens of thread-thin strands of glowing energy drifted and curled.
The creature's wings turned transparent and started flapping as it floated in the air.
(Image here)
Pandora cupped her hands in front of her as the little shimmering luminescent creature fluttered its wings and floated above her palms, illuminating her features.
"Shall we show the little one her home?" Pandora asked Luna in a whisper.
Luna nodded, and the next instant they were in Pandora's realm when Pandora separated her hands and let the creature loose as it started fluttering its wings and began moving around the realm in wonder.
"What can they do?" Luna asked with her eyes fixed on the beautiful creature.
"I don't know, dear. I just wished to make an intelligent creature of light and here it is," Pandora said with wonder in her eyes.
Even as divinities, gods and demigods did not really have supreme control over most sentient species they created based on the rules of their universe.
And Pandora had not even exercised what control she had. She had just formed the most basic ideas and given them life to observe how they would evolve.
Luna and Pandora observed the little creature for a little longer as it observed and studied the world around itself.
"I'll see you later, Mum. Love you," Luna bid farewell to Pandora after a little while.
"See you, dear. Love you too," Pandora caressed Luna's cheek as she formed a portal and entered it.
Luna exited the portal and emerged on the other side to find herself in Aaric's room, where he was feeding Dune, his owl.
Aaric smiled when he saw Luna, and Dune flew toward the window before vanishing as he held her waist and gave her a kiss.
Daphne joined them after half an hour as they spent their time in Aaric's room.
For some reason, Fleur and Aaric had not said their feelings to each other out loud, so she had not started joining Aaric for the nights.
"Would you wish to ascend before we go to the next world or after we settle in?" Aaric asked the girls as he lay on his bed with Luna and Daphne on both his sides while he formed circles with his hands around their bare backs.
"I don't think either way will make a difference," Daphne said with closed eyes.
Aaric hummed; they were not planning to ascend for power but because of pragmatism, and there were still hundreds of years before they may need to become full gods.
The next morning, Aaric had asked his friends to meet him beside the Black Lake after breakfast, as there were no classes that day because it was a Sunday.
"Behold," Aaric announced and placed a glass jar in front of them.
The jar contained a beetle that was thrashing around inside it.
"You remember how we call Rita Skeeter an insect? Well, that is true in more ways than one," Aaric said, tapping the jar with his finger.
"Don't tell me," Ron whispered; he had figured out what Aaric meant by those words.
"So she is an unregistered animagus," Hermione muttered.
"Spot on, Granger. Points to Gryffindor," Aaric said with a grin.
"What are you going to do with her, mate? You can't keep a person in a jar, no matter how disgusting they are," Harry said with a shake of his head and pity in his eyes.
"Well, that is why I called you guys here. You guys decide what to do with her," Aaric said, shaking the jar as the beetle tumbled inside it.
"Well, let's just expose her as an illegal animagus and be done with it. She is no use to us and better in Azkaban for the sake of the world," Hermione said dismissively.
"Hermione!" Harry exclaimed in shock. "Isn't Azkaban too cruel?" he asked.
"She is a criminal, and that is the law. Tell me, Harry, do you think even in a million years she would choose to do something good for the world, even accidentally?" Hermione challenged the boy.
Harry did not argue back and still looked conflicted.
"Sorry to say, but I agree with Hermione, mate. It was her choice to keep her animagus form a secret, and with the article she wrote about Hagrid, knowing it could destroy his life. I don't have much sympathy for her even if I try," Ron said, patting Harry's shoulder.
Even Pyra seemed to be agreeing with Ron and Hermione on the matter as she looked up at Harry.
Harry gave his approval by just not objecting further and got a nod from Aaric.
"Azkaban it is for you, little insect," Aaric said, bringing the jar close to his face as Rita desperately banged on the jar in her beetle form.
A/n: Give me your thought on the chapter and reviews on the fic.
And.. you got any power stones? Well, hand em over then..