neutral_omens | (no subject)

Date: October 25th, 1999 - Late night, near midnight
Status: Public it is, then. (Er, if you don't mind, that is, Carrie.)
Setting: Outside, on the Manor grounds
Summary: Luna is practicing her Astronomy and waiting for Saturn to rise so that she can track it and hopefully predict where and when it will rise in 60 years' time.

Luna fiddled with her telescope, finally managing to make it stay upright properly. She sighed, taking her wand from behind her ear, and peered through the telescope, trying to find the waning Moon in the telescope's viewing field. It was just rising. Mars was bright tonight, but Saturn, the planet she was interested in, would not rise for another hour or so. Pointing her wand at the parchment in her hand, she noted down the positions of the stars in the sky, paying particular attention to the relative distance between the Pleiades and Taurus. If her calculations were correct, this was the area where Saturn would appear.

She was tracking the movement of Saturn every month in order to find if she could satisfactorily predict where it would be when the time came for it to intersect with Halley's Comet, if it did intersect with Halley's Comet. It never hurt to be extra sure of things, and two sightings of Crumple-Horned Snorkacks would definitely confirm their existence.

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"Oh. Are you a skeptic too then?" said Luna. Just like Hermione. "You know, Just because you can't see them doesn't mean they're not real. And if you can see them, why, then they're definitely real. That's what I was doing out here - well, sort of." Luna paused, fiddling with her wand. "I'm on a Crumple-Horned Snorkack expedition, and this is one of the lines I'm working along." she said, gesturing towards her telescope, which was at the moment pointing at the ground.

"Yeah, you shouldn't be nasty to people just because they're different." Wish someone could have persuaded Momma that, Carrie thought ruefully. "Um, what's a Crumple-Horned Snorkack? Maybe I could help you look for one."

"My sentiments exactly," said Luna.

"Oh would you? Well, basically they have crumpled horns, and spots, and maybe it'd be better if I drew you a picture." She tore off a bit of the parchment she had been writing on, and drew a brief sketch of a Crumple-Horned Snorkack. "It looks like this. Do you have any pockets or things like that you could keep this in?" Luna asked.

"Thanks so much for offering," said Luna warmly to Carrie.

"Ah... I didn't know we had any rare animals around here..." Newt said, feeling flustered. This was obviously some sort of New Age believer in things - in fact she reminded him disconcertingly of a younger Anathema, perhaps three years before he'd met her. "I mean, I didn't say I didn't believe in things like... I mean, well of course I don't. But they seem to be real anyway."

He was confusing himself now. Dammit. "My wife's a witch, actually." He added.

"I guess for you it's 'Seeing is not believing', huh?" sighed Luna. "Do you think that they're optical illusions or something, then?" She would never have thought that Muggles, could be, well, so stubborn. Though she supposed that she couldn't blame them for it. It was like they were wearing blinkers or something. And horses can't take blinkers off by themselves. Someone else had to take them off for them.

"See, there's something you don't believe in, and she's your wife." Luna said, especially emphasizing the last two words. "I mean, really! The length you Muggles will go to to deny the existence of things that clearly exist baffles the mind."

"No, no, no, no, no!" Newt said frantically, waving his arms like a particularly epileptic windmill. "I don't mean they don't exist. I just mean I don't believe in them. I mean, I don't believe in, in," he looked around wildly, "Trees! I don't believe in trees! Why should I? They exist anyway? What difference is it going to make if I believe in them? Now, about ten years ago I met an angel, a demon, a lost tibetan, an antichrist and the four horsemen, some of which may or may not be hanging around here now, and you don't see me believing in THEM, do you?"

"Oh. Oh. Um, okay?" said Luna hesitantly, wondering if Newt had become unhinged as he windmilled his arms. "An angel, a demon, a Tibetan, an Antichrist and the four Horsemen, you say? Sounds like a song lyric." She was interrupted by a soft beeping sound coming from her telescope. "Oh dear, well, that's me. I'm doing some astronomical calculations, and well," she gestured somewhat aimlessly with her left hand, taking hold of her wand with her right. "You're more than welcome to stay if you like, though. Both of you." She turned to her telescope, muttering, "An angel, a demon, a Tibetan, an Antichrist and the four Horsemen, oh my."

Newt chuckled nervously, wondering if she was making a joke. Then he glanced at his w3atch. "Well, I guess I'd better be going. It's, you know, late. Um, nice meeting you. Er, and you." He added, turning in the general direction of the last place he remembered the ghost being and giving a cautious wave. And with that he turned and walked back inside.