1981 – The Lovegood Manor
Luna pov
It turns out demons don't like toast.
Or maybe just the concept of toast. Leviathan stared at it with mild disgust, his eyes glowing red in that polite but faintly unsettling way he had when something offended his ancient dignity. The bread, a little burnt around the edges, sat untouched on the chipped porcelain plate between us.
"Is it cursed?" he asked.
I blinked. "No. It's buttered."
He looked at the toast like it had personally insulted his bloodline.
"Most human food is cursed in spirit," he muttered. "It is too dry. Too... processed. I miss raw things. Real things."
I tilted my head. "You sound like Daddy when he talks about jam from the 60s."
Leviathan said nothing.
We were sitting at the breakfast table in the sunroom, and it was my job to help him "blend in." That's what Daddy would need something soft and manageable, like a story with the edges rounded off. Not Leviathan, Duke of Sloth, Sovereign of the Fifth Circle and Creator of Dragonkind.
So I gave him a new name.
"You'll be Levi Nathan now," I told him. "You're an orphan, Muggleborn, with an odd gift for wandless magic. You were found wandering near Ottery St. Catchpole and I brought you home because you had nowhere else to go."
Leviathan blinked slowly. "Levi. Nathan."
"Muggles like names that sound normal," I said, sipping my tea. "It makes it easier for them to pretend magic isn't real. By the way can you change your appearance so you look my age"
"Yes, not a problem. But the name... I find it... undignified."
"It's temporary," I told him.
He sighed like mountains shifting in sleep, but after he changed his appearance without complaining.
When I introduced him to Daddy, the silence was thick. Daddy looked at Leviathan like he was a shadow in the wrong shape.
"Who is this?" he asked.
Leviathan opened his mouth to speak, but I stepped in first. "This is Levi Nathan. He's Muggleborn. I found him near the riverbank. He had no wand and no shoes, but he made the wind stop with just his hand."
Daddy blinked. "That's illegal."
"So is forgetting how to say good morning," I muttered under my breath.
But Levi... Levi Nathan, I should say, bowed just slightly. "I am grateful for your hospitality."
Daddy looked suspicious, but nodded slowly. "The Ministry will want to know about you."
"Oh, don't bother them," I said quickly. "They get so fussy about paperwork."
---
A Few Months Later – July 31st
My Birthday
The sun came through the windows in golden ribbons, the kind that make shadows feel like stories. There was a cake lavender and lemon, shaped like a Snorkack and Daddy even remembered to put my name on it this year.
And best of all, my Hogwarts letter arrived.
The owl flew in right as I finished unwrapping a necklace made of thestral tail hairs. It dropped the envelope into my lap and hooted as if it had just delivered a prophecy.
I held it close. My heart felt full like summer.
---
HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confederation of Wizards)
Dear Miss Lovegood,
We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You will find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
List of Requirements for First-Year Students
.
.
.
---
Levi was watching me from the doorway, arms crossed, wearing the sweater I'd knit him. It was too short in the sleeves and one sleeve had a tiny bite taken out of it (garden gnomes), but he wore it anyway.
"You'll have to come too," I told him. "You'll like Hogwarts. They have ghosts and hidden staircases and all sorts of cursed armor. But you'll need an identity. And an owl. Or a bat. Either is fine."
He tilted his head. "I will... take care of it."
I clapped. "Wonderful! Go to the Ministry and register yourself as a student. Try not to mention Hell."
He nodded once, then vanished—just like that.
---
A Few Hours Later – At the Lovegood Manor
The front door creaked open.
Leviathan stepped inside, perfectly composed. His boots were cleaner than when he left. His eyes gleamed with a sort of dangerous amusement.
"I have returned."
I looked up from a book about Muggle plumbing charms. "Did you speak to anyone nice?"
"I compelled four Unspeakables and a registrar. The Head of the Department of Magical Records now believes I was born in Wales under a meteor shower and raised by mute wandmakers."
I blinked.
"Well, that's... thorough."
He held up a letter.
A real, official, Ministry-approved letter.
It had his name: Levi Nathan. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Term begins September 1st.
I took it and held it next to mine. We both had them now. Two strange little names, stamped in ink and magic.
"We'll be students together," I said, almost breathless.
He nodded. "That is what you wanted."
---
The Next Day – Diagon Alley
The cobblestones always felt a little alive underfoot. Like they remembered all the witches and wizards who had passed before. Levi walked beside me like a shadow trying to understand what light was.
He didn't speak much as we moved through the crowd. I wore my dirigible plum earrings and a hat with a puffskein feather tucked into the brim. Daddy said I looked like a lost scarecrow, but Levi said I looked like "a prophet dressed by butterflies."
Which I think was a compliment.
People stared at Levi, of course. He was silent and lovely in a way that made people forget to breathe. But they didn't say anything. Magic can be quiet that way.
We bought robes first black and soft and smelling of warm wool. He didn't like the hats, but I did.
Then we went to Ollivanders.
The shop smelled like dust and power. Stacks of wand boxes curled toward the ceiling like crooked towers. Mr. Ollivander stepped out from behind a shelf, blinking.
"Ah. Luna Lovegood. And... oh. You..."
He stared at Levi for a long moment.
Levi returned the look calmly. "I... We need wands."
"Yes," Ollivander said, voice strange. "Yes, I rather imagine you do."
It took longer than usual.
Wands sparked, hissed, cracked. One sent a spray of frost across the wall. Another melted a shelf.
But finally blackthorn, 14 inches, core of basilisk heartstring the wand gave a soft, thunderous thrum in Levi's hand.
"A dangerous match," Ollivander whispered. "But balanced. It chose you, and you chose it."
Levi bowed his head. "I accept."
And for me it was rather simple the first one ollivanders gave me worked but he was still slightly astounded.
"Curious... curious indeed."
It was 11 inches of sliver-lime, with a core of thestral hair.
"Great for seers." Ollivanders said.
---
As we left the shop, Levi held the wand as if it were a sleeping creature.
"You didn't compel him," I said, softly.
"I did not need to," Levi replied. "He knew what I was. And still... he gave me something that was mine."
I smiled.
"That's how you know he's real magic."
---
We finished our day with Butterbeer and peppermint bark in a quiet corner. Levi had removed his cloak, letting the sunlight touch his pale skin.
I watched the way he moved now still deliberate, still regal, but... softer. Like the world was beginning to teach him how to be a little less myth and a little more boy.
"You'll like the train," I said dreamily. "It smells like chocolate and coal and new beginnings."
"I have not ridden a train before."
"Well, then. You're in for an adventure."
And as the sun dipped low over Diagon Alley, I held my wand in one hand, and his in the other, and smiled at the world.
Because now we were no longer secret things in hidden rooms.
We were real. We were written into the story.
And Hogwarts was waiting