Twelve Years Later: The Sankuru Serpent
Title: Twelve Years Later: The Sankuru Serpent
Author: kanedax
Spoilers: Deathly Hallows & Previous Chapters
Characters/Pairings: Luna/OC, Xenophilius
Rating: PG-13 for sexual discussion and mild femslash
Word count: 3,184 words
Summary: Luna gets the news
Notes: I know, it’s short. And it’s meh. But it’s exposition, I suppose. I own these characters. The others belong to JK Rowling.
Unprecedented / Previous Chapters / Boxing Day
Hello, Neville,
I apologize for not replying to your letter right away. I received your correspondence five days ago, but I was unable to find the proper time or privacy to write back to you until now. I hope your owl returned to you safely and is not interrupting your honeymoon in Ireland. She was a very beautiful Papuan Hawk Owl, but I did not recognize her specifically; is she a new Hogwarts owl, or have you purchased another owl since I saw you last? Did Conifer die?
Actually, he is most likely sending out other letters, as I would not think that I am the only one to whom you are writing. Please disregard my last question. How is Conifer doing?
Tell me how the wedding went. I deeply wish that I could have attended. But, as you know, I am in Africa at this time and could not attend. I will tell you more about my journey later in my letter. Was it a large wedding? I believe that you and Uriela would not be the type of people who would have a large wedding, but I could be mistaken in that regard. I slept that night with a Valerian root beneath my pillow in the hopes that it would make you realize that I was thinking about you both and that I wished I were there sharing in your joy. I hope that it worked.
Please tell me as much as you wish to say about the wedding, the reception, and the honeymoon. I will also be sending letters Ginny, Harry, and Hermione and asking them about their feelings regarding the festivities. Different perspectives on one event can yield much more satisfying results, and can create a clearer picture for me to treasure.
Also, if you have any photographs you can part with, I would be most grateful.
We are currently camped on Lake Mweru, one of the many sources that eventually become the Congo River. My father is currently in a nearby wizarding village, searching for information about the Sankuru Serpent. An extremely rare reptile, its colors shift between dazzling blue and deep red depending on a currently uncalculated combination of external temperature, ultraviolet exposure, and fiber content in its diet. Its venom can kill a troll in five minutes, but if enough people sing the correct native chant to it, the Serpent then synthesizes the venom into a serum that effectively cures both athletes’ foot and genital warts.
I am sure you have been made aware of this amazing creature at some point in the past, but I know that you have difficulty remembering many creatures that exist in the world. I hope you are not offended if I explained details that you already knew.
The egg-laying cycle of the Sankuru Serpent only comes once every fourteen lunar cycles, and the location of the incubation alternates in an unknown pattern along the Congo River. Our hopes are to find the Serpent during its incubation period in order to study and document it. Also, we currently have enough diversity in our expedition to create an eight-part harmony if we decide to study some of the Serpent’s serum.
I am second soprano, and my father’s voice is a lovely first tenor. Our baritone may need more practice, but we are confident that he will be able to come through when needed.
As I stated, it is our hope to find the Sankuru Serpent in its natural habitat. However, we have found many difficulties throughout our journey in Africa. The animals have been nothing but generous to us. Of course, there was the one time Gavin, our second tenor, was driven close to insanity by a nearby Fwooper. But we of course were able to cast a Silencing Charm in time, and Gavin is doing much better, and is quite grateful to the Fwooper for allowing him the experience.
Most of the difficulties surrounding this trip deal with the Muggles in the region. There is apparently a civil war that has been fought in this region for quite some time now. We have heard small explosions in the distance on many occasions, and have even been threatened on occasion by some local Muggles and their riffles, which I guess make those explosions, and shoot small metal projectiles to injure animals or other Muggles. Quite irritating, if you ask me, but nothing that a simple Shield Charm could not stop. Muggles are quite a fascinating species. Do you think Dudley, Petunia, or the Grangers would mind if I wrote them with some more questions? The wizards and witches in this area try their best to keep a distance from the Muggle population, but we have had to use more Memory Charms in this area than we have in any other region.
The magical people in this region are not much better than the Muggles. They have their own skirmishes, which I have been told have been going on for many centuries now. Nothing very terrifying, just the occasional battle over territory popping up every couple decades.
Their disregard for the creatures in this region saddens me. In one instance we found a dozen skinned Tebos, killed for their hides and left for other animals to scavenge. I can understand that their skins are used to make Invisibility Cloaks and Shielded clothing. But it depresses me greatly that these noble warthogs would be treated with such disrespect. I can only imagine the numbers that were required to hunt these beasts down, and I would believe that all of the effort is somewhat of a waste if the hides only do what a simple Disillusionment Charm could accomplish.
But I am getting myself emotional. There are so many fascinating creatures in this region that I only wish the people who live here would appreciate them as much as we do.
Luna Lovegood reached to her ear and absently brushed back hair that did not exist anymore. Two months ago her pale blonde hair had grown down to past her waist. However, after a run-in with a particularly nasty specimen of Serbian Snarevine, she decided that it might serve her and her scalp better to not carry around as much as she had been while in the wild.
Two days and a series of Diffindo spells later, Luna found herself with a haircut that could best be described as a wizard cut: short in the back, hair on the sides barely reaching the ears. Her father thought it was quite unlike her (Luna believed he was not comfortable with the idea of having longer hair than his daughter), but Milinka, a Serbian witch about Luna’s age that had accompanied their expedition, thought that Luna looked quite fetching with her new style, and Luna took her word as well as her father’s.
Of course, Milinka and Luna considered themselves dating, if “dating” was even possible when two people traveled with one another constantly and had difficulty separating the “seeing each other” time from the “not seeing each other” time. And Milinka had given the compliment while they were in bed with one another, and seemed to have been looking at Luna’s body more than her hair. But Luna took the compliment quite well, nonetheless.
It was Milinka who opened the flap to Luna’s tent and poked her head in. After their time in Eastern Europe, Luna was quite pleased that Milinka had grown attached to the natural world and had decided to join her on the expedition. She was a first soprano, as well, which was nothing but frosting on the cake, as far as Luna was concerned.
“Hello, Luna.”
“Hello, Milinka,” Luna replied with a small smile. Her owl hooted softly on the perch beside her.
“Your father is come back,” Milinka, a short brunette with blue eyes and a mole on her right cheek, said, returning Luna’s smile with one even more radiant. “He speaks to you.”
“Okay,” said Luna. Milinka was slowly picking up the English language, but was still quite a ways from perfection. Luna didn’t mind, though. Words were only one of many ways to communicate, after all. “Tell him I will be out in ten minutes,” she replied, holding up ten fingers. “I must finish writing this letter first.” She pointed to the parchment and mimed writing with her quill.
“Yes,” said Milinka with a nod. “I will speak him.”
“Thank you,” said Luna, and Milinka closed the tent flap. Luna looked down at the parchment, re-read it to regain her train of conversation, and then dipped the quill.
I cannot write much more. My father has just returned from the village, and that means we will be striking camp and setting off down the river tonight.
I wish to once again reiterate my congratulations on your marriage to Uriela. I believed that there was something special between you two when we broke up three years ago, and I am pleased to see the proof of this belief.
As for a wedding gift, I am hoping to find a Mincks at some time between now and when I return to England next summer. I saved some of my hair from a recent haircut (my girlfriend thinks it looks very nice, I believe I will keep it at this length when I return so you can see it then) and am hoping to feed it to the Mincks in exchange for some of its fecal matter. I have been told that the feces of the Mincks gives a human male increased sexual stamina and endurance, which you and Uriela might like.
Do not be offended. Your stamina did not give me any worry when you and I were having sex. In fact, when compared to the three men I have slept with since dating you, you came ahead as the longest-lasting of the three. I simply think that there is no such thing as too much stamina, and that Uriela would be quite pleased by you.
However, if I cannot find a Mincks, I can always send you something else. Would you like a candelabra?
Before I end this letter, I was wondering if you or Uriela would be offended if I began to send her correspondence. After you and I ended our romantic relationship I was not able to speak to her or get to know her as well as I would have liked. If she is uncomfortable with this, I would understand. I have heard that some witches or wizards become uncomfortable when their spouse develops a rapport with a former lover.
But if she is comfortable with me, I would like to get to know more about her.
Please give my love to Uriela, and your grandmother, and Harry, and Ginny, and Hermione, and Ron, and Dean, and Seamus, and Parvati, and Lavender, and Padma, and Hannah, and Ernie, and Teddy, and Justin, and Hagrid, and Nearly-Headless Nick, and Aurora, and Bill, and Fleur, and Hermione Caroline, and Arthur, and Molly, and…
I know I am leaving many people out, including all of the children. But I am running out of space on my parchment.
Love always,
Luna
Luna nodded in contentment as she skimmed over the letter.
“Give me your leg, Gulliver,” she said to her owl. Gulliver Pokeby, named after the wizard author of the same name, hopped down from his perch.
“I wish for you to take this to Neville and Uriela Longbottom,” she said. “They may still be in Ireland right now. But if not they will either be at Hogwarts or at their flat in Hogsmeade.”
Gulliver hooted in assent as Luna gently tied the parchment around his leg. He then hopped onto her arm, and together they walked out of the tent and into the afternoon sun.
“Keep yourself safe, Gulliver Pokeby,” she whispered. “Don’t let anyone shoot their riffles at you. Do you want me to give you a Disillusionment Charm?”
Gulliver hooted.
“Okay, if you say so,” Luna said. “Fly safe.”
The owl hooted again, and took to the air in a flourish of feathers. Luna continued to keep her eye on Gulliver until he flew over the river’s shoreline, where four small boats were resting, and disappeared over the northwestern horizon. Luna then turned back to the camp.
“Hello, father,” she said as she walked to the mess tent, a pitched tarp with the sides open to the wind. Xenophilius Lovegood sat at the table, along with Milinka and three other members of the expedition. The table itself was covered haphazardly with charts, maps, and various pieces of equipment that would have looked odd to all but a few.
“Hello, love,” said Xeno with a broad grin. Luna’s father had aged ten years in the few months that she had been captured and held captive at Malfoy Manor. In the twelve years since then, he had been fighting a losing battle getting those years back, and even his bright smile appeared much wearier than it would have in the past.
Luna supposed that she was partially to blame for this. Ever since they were reunited, her father found it very difficult to let her go off on her own for any length of time. The more she tried to develop some independence, the more nervous and anxious her father became. One year short of thirty years old, she knew that she would have to sit down with him eventually and talk to him about the course of their lives, especially if she found someone between now and then that she would want to spend the rest of her life with.
Perhaps she should start to find a companion for Xenophilius. He loved Luna’s mother dearly, and Luna loved her as well, more than anyone she had ever loved. But she also knew that her mother would not want her husband to be without a new love for the rest of his life.
But for now she was content with him by her side, as they both shared the common interest in The Search. Anything else would come when it came.
“Did you get the information you were looking for?” Luna asked, sitting down across from her father and beside Milinka, who took her hand and gave it an affectionate squeeze.
“Oh, yes!” Xenophilius exclaimed, moving aside the alphona, a device shaped like an oblong teapot that was used to detect psychic impulses in reptiles, and spreading out a hand-drawn map. “Yes, the head witch of the village insists that the Serpent will be appearing here,” at this he pointed to a location about a quarter of the way down the river.
“And it will be tonight?” Luna asked as Milinka and the others leaned in to look at the map.
“Yes, it will,” said Xenophilius, his grin widening. “We’ve gotten extremely lucky, my dear. If we leave now we should be able to get there with ample time to see this rare spectacle.”
“That sounds lovely,” said Luna. “But we should be packing immediately, should we not?”
“I agree,” said Xenophilius. “Right, then. Everybody!” he called out loudly. “We… must… pack!” He waved his arms around in a circle, and then closed it tight, miming the lid of a box.
The rest of the members of the expedition, very few of whom spoke any English, nodded in semi-understanding.
“Make sure you take whatever you need,” said Luna. “Once the tents are packed you won’t have access to anything inside of them until tonight.”
Taking her own advice, she ducked back into the tent she shared with Milinka, who followed her close behind.
“Do you have everything you need?” Luna asked the Serbian woman as she scanned the magically-enhanced structure.
“Yes, very much,” she replied, hiking her backpack onto her shoulders and removing her wide-brimmed hat from the hat rack. “Are you happy?”
“Very happy, yes,” said Luna, smiling softly as she picked up her own backpack. “I’m very excited. It will be nice if we actually get to see it.”
“We will,” said Milinka as she refilled her bottle at the water faucet. “You are lucky that way.”
“I don’t think that I am lucky,” said Luna, who stepped up beside her. “But it’s nice of you to say. Thank you.”
“We go now?”
“In just a moment,” said Luna, putting her own bottle under the faucet after Milinka’s had been filled. She then turned her girlfriend around and attached the bottle to her backpack.
“You want a kiss for luck?” Milinka asked with a naughty grin after she did the same with Luna’s pack.
“I think a kiss would be very nice.”
The two embraced, somewhat awkwardly with backpacks on their backs. Thirty seconds of wrestling later, their tongues untied, their lips separated, their hands removed from different places, they continued to hold each other.
“Tonight?” Milinka asked, breathing heavily.
“Tonight would be lovely,” said Luna, gazing into her striking blue eyes.
“Tonight,” Milinka repeated, and the two sighed in contented frustration as they separated and left the tent.
“Have everything, dear?” Xenophilius asked.
“We do now,” said Luna, turning around and waving her wand at the tent, which imploded into a tight bundle.
“You know,” Xenophilius said as he struck the mess tent, “I still believe that you should have asked your friend Harry to come along with us.”
“I know, father,” said Luna.
“Did you even try? This is very important work, you know.”
“Yes, father,” Luna explained. “And he knows it, too. But he would not want to leave his family, I am sure of it.”
Xeno sighed. “Yes, I suppose the children are too young to bring with. But even still, if one of us is off-key, this entire journey could be ruined.”
“I know that, father,” said Luna, carrying the bundle to the waiting boats. “But we will do our best. We have all been practicing very hard.”
“It just would have been nice to have a Parselmouth with us as a second option,” said Xenophilius. “And it would also be a fascinating conversation.”
“Perhaps if we do well,” Luna said, “we can befriend the Serpent. And then next time, after his children are old enough to be in school, we can bring Harry and Ginny with us. We could make it a whole new journey.”
Xenophilius Lovegood brightened considerably at the thought. “You’re right, dear,” he said jovially. “Of course there will be a next time. What a fantastic idea!”
“Thank you,” said Luna, as she and Milinka shoved their boat from the shore out to the water.
“And just think of the possibilities!” Xenophilius continued as he climbed into his own boat with their bass, Sergei. “Why, there’s a chance that his children are Parselmouths! We could bring his whole family when they're old enough! Oh, the conversations we could have with the Sankuru Serpent! Do you think Parseltongue is a universal language, or would the dialect be different on this continent?”
And so Xenophilius continued as the Luna and the Lovegood Expedition floated down the Congo River, towards whatever may come.
Unprecedented / Previous Chapters / Boxing Day