[brecon beacons] keep exploring, seek and find [luna]

Moon frogs.

They were going hunting for moon frogs. In the Brecon Beacons. At night. It was just before nine, the sun would be setting in another hour or so, and Luna was due to meet Angharad at her home in Caerphilly shortly. From there they would apparate to Brecon and then the rest of the night would be wandering around in the darkness looking for tiny, glowing frogs.

Harri had been briefed on how a colony of the amphibians had somehow migrated to this semi-remote part of Wales. She was sure Luna had some sort of explanation as to how they'd made the trip, and Harri was also fairly certain it would be a great tale. Though the Welsh girl rarely believed her former house-mate she always enjoyed Luna's eccentricities. Well maybe not always, it had taken a certain fall from grace for Harri to truly appreciate Luna, and she'd be forever grateful. Perhaps that was why she was willing to venture forth with very little likelihood of them actually finding anything. It wasn't about finding anything, it was about spending time with someone. Someone who made her smile.

June in Wales was not a promise of balmy summer weather. There was a light breeze already and possible showers had been mentioned on the weather forecast so Angharad had fished out her rainjacket (a bright yellow parka) and her wellington boots. Underneath she wore a floaty mint green daydress. It was an odd combination, but it wasn't cold enough to warrant a jumper -- if anything it was likely to be muggy and then she'd regret the jacket, but if she didn't take it it would be just her luck that it would rain. Welsh weather, there was nothing that could beat it.

A knock at the door heralded Luna's appearance. Harri patted her pocket to check that her wand was there, shouted "Bye!" along the hallway to her parents, and opened the front door. with a grin already across her lips. "Hey!"

Moon frogs! They were going hunting for moonfrogs! In the Brecon Beacons! At night! A handful of Welsh witches and wizards had written to The Quibbler, detailing how the moon frogs had been spotted last month during the new moon. According to what was known about the life cycle of the moon frog, that meant that during the following full moon they would be mating, and then during the subsequent new moon, the size of the colony would have doubled. The moon frogs had very short gestation and tadpole stages relative to their overall life span, of course.

There were a few theories about how the colony came to exist in Wales, the most widely accepted of which was that a wizard, after returning from a trip to the moon, had carelessly released a few frogs in a bog outside his home. And like frogs are wont to do, they multiplied and moved to more favorable environs. Why Wales was the favorable place was another mystery in and of itself. But Luna had stopped questioning why things were happening in a certain way, much preferring to explore and find out the answer for herself.

As soon as she had decided to go to Wales, she couldn't think of a better person to accompany her on an outing during the new moon than Harri. She was so nice, and she hadn't seen her former roommate since leaving Hogwarts a year before, having been abroad for the majority of her time since then. She had sent her a few letters, of course, but there wasn't enough parchment to tell her about everything she was doing, everything she was seeing, everything she wasn't discovering. No, this outing would be more than enough to make up for all of that.

She had fashioned a hat out of an umbrella and was wearing it proudly, despite the fact that it had yet to rain. But one could never be sure, and this hat was much less confining that a rain coat and still allowed her the freedom to move her arms that she wouldn't have with a more traditional umbrella. Her wellies still had a bit of dried mud on them from her last jaunt along a riverbed, and she wore them with a large sweater that hung to her knees. She had never been a practical dresser, and tonight was the not the night to begin.

"Hi!" Luna didn't give Harri the opportunity to reject being pulled into a hug, though she released her after only a few seconds. "Are you ready, then?" She readjusted the straps of her backpack as she looked behind Harri into her house, not sure if she was expected to say hello to her parents or not. People always had conflicting opinions when it came to Luna meeting family members. Otherwise, they could just apparate a little bit down the lane. She had found a good enough spot to apparate to in the park, having scoped it out a little bit earlier in the day.

If anyone thought that Harri's fashion sense was eclectic, they had only to meet Luna and the Welsh woman would be trumped. Angharad could appreciate the jumper - it wasn't something she would wear herself (brown wasn't really her colour), but it somehow suited Luna. Or Luna's personality, anyway. The umbrella hat was very Luna, but it was certainly a step too far for Harri. In a past life she would have sneered at her housemate, giggling behind her back with the other girls in her year, but not now. Now it was something to appreciate -- the way she appreciated anything a little zany that reminded her of the girl who would become one of her closest friends.

"Nice--oof!" By now Angharad should have expected to be pulled into the hug, she endured it. It was actually nice to be forced into the physical contact. She normally avoided touching people, scared that she would somehow infect them. It was a ridiculous, unfounded fear. She knew that she had to bite someone, or break their skin at the very least, to even so much as give them a taste for rare steak. Even so, she was always cautious, like she knew any normal person would be in reaction to learning about her affliction. But not Luna. Harri was grateful. When the Luna finally released her, Angharad smiled. "Nice hat."

The dirty blonde didn't miss Luna's casting glance down the hallway beyond, and she felt slightly guilty. She wasn't hiding her friend from her parents because she was embarrassed. She was hiding her friend because she was being selfish. Harri knew her parents would love Luna. Love her for being their daughter's friend, for pulling her out of her despair. But Harri also knew her parents would try to enlist Luna as a sort of carer. A spy, to report back on how their daughter was doing, and Harri couldn't stomach that. She couldn't lose one of her only remaining friends to her parents' over-protectiveness.

"Sure am." She pulled the door shut behind her with a bright smile to hide her doubts. "Have you been to Brecon before?" Angharad had spent many summer day-trips in the Brecon Beacons, it was a popular place for walking trips. It was a mountainous area, but only by Welsh standards. Compared to true mountains it was perhaps more accurate to describe it as 'hilly'. Most of the national park was moorland, with a spattering of forests.

"Whereabouts did you say the moonfrogs would be?" As they walked a little down the lane, the twenty-year-old pulled a neatly-folded map out of her jacket pocket, ready to offer it should they need to pick an entry point, though she was certain that Luna had already figured out exactly where they would be apparating to. Her housemate usually seemed distant, but Angharad knew that when it came to a 'mission' she was fastidious.

"I can make you one, if you'd like," Luna said as she beamed, more than happy to help. Normally, she would just offer the one she was wearing, but her forthcoming trip to a rainforest in a few days time allowed her to be the slightest bit selfish when it came to her rain gear. She nodded slowly as Harri confirmed that she was ready, taking a step back and to the side to let her fully exit her house.

Her nodding turned slowly into shaking her head. "Not before this afternoon." She had just nearly been needed to write the first story about the colony when The Quibbler first wanted to report it, but she had ended up being assigned to something else completely. "But all I did was set up a good place for us to apparate." She shrugged like it had taken it no time at all, but truthfully she had spent the week leading up to this planning things, then the entire morning actually getting everything ready.

"Well the place I think they are and the place they are might not be exactly the same," she cautioned, though that was half the fun. Still, she paused from walking for a minute, long enough to look down at the map that Harri was holding ad pointing to a blue squiggle with the name 'Nant y Llestri' next to it. She had practiced saying the name of it and tried it out as she tapped her finger on the paper a few times in quick succession, "Nant y Llestri," hoping her friend wouldn't hesitate to correct her pronunciation.

It was nice that she had brought a map, too. Luna's usual method of finding things was just to walk around and think about it until she found it, which might not fare them well this evening, if they had any hopes to find a moon frog before the sun came up.

She looked around, deciding that this was as good a place as any to apparate. "I can get us there," she said, offering her arm for Harri to grab onto. As soon as her grip was sufficient, they were squeezing through the darkness, reappearing with a loud pop on the northwest bank of the creek. It was dark, very dark, and it took Luna's eyes a minute to adjust to the lack of light from streetlamps. She removed her wand from behind her ear and held it in her palm, having it point north for them. "We can go this way a bit," Luna said as she pointed southwest.

Lighting the tip of her wand, Luna took a few steps closer to the water. "It's shallow," she reassured them both, "Might be best to just wade along, stir them up from the reeds." Again, there had been conflicting information about where, exactly, the moon frogs liked to rest, but if they didn't start looking somewhere, they would never find them.

“Oh, no – that’s okay. I’ll stick with an old fashioned umbrella.” She smiled, conscious of both the potential for hat hair and the fashion faux pas that was an umbrella-hat in and of itself.

“Well, that’s a good start then. It’s a shame it’s dark, it’s a lovely place.” No matter how sick Harri was of staying home all the time, she loved her birth country – not that she had much to compare it to; a few trips to London for shopping, a Christmas in Scotland one year, but that was it really. The hustle and bustle of large cities was exciting and nice for a change, and she dreamed of going overseas to exotic lands – but Wales would always be home.  She knew deep down that she would probably never live anywhere else – she could definitely do with moving out of home, but she would be happy to stay relatively local...

Her musings were interrupted by Luna continuing on with the mission. “Mm.” Or might not be there at all, as could often be the case with Luna’s mad goose chases, but that was part of the fun. “Well I suppose we will find out soon enough.” She said with a positive tone of determination.

Angharad looked to the point on the map that her friend indicated, smiling at Luna’s attempt at speaking Welsh. “Da iawn, very good.” She said with a grin, “Just missing the proper noise for the double ‘L’, but to be fair I don’t think even most Welsh people pronounce it right. I probably don’t half the time.” She smiled in earnest, pondering that last. It was more out of laziness than anything else.

“Sure.” Angharad could apparate, but she didn’t do it very often and hadn’t had much practice at side-along apparition – a hazard of being largely incapacitated for several months when most of her peers were learning, and then followed by being in a constant state of varying degrees of tiredness. Harri reached out and grabbed hold of Luna’s forearm firmly, and a moment later she felt like she was being squished and squeezed through a tight vacuum and then...

Pop!

It was very dark. There was no light pollution from a large town or city to shed any light, only the faint glow from the moon. A full moon would have been a better night to do this on, Harri knew, not just for the light but based on what little was known about moonfrogs they tended to be more active around that time, but things being as they were they would have to settle for a little less moonlight.

Once her eyes had adjusted better to the light, or lack of, Harri followed Luna down into the stream. “Okay.” Her wellies kept her feet dry; the water was lightly trickling about midway up her boots, but you would hardly call it a current. “Will they glow or something?” She hoped so, or how else were they meant to spot the things?

Every footstep was accompanied by a very loud and very wet squelching sound. Will they glow? Sure, why not? “I suppose,” she replied, taking another timid step forward, sliding the sole of her boot along the bottom, unwilling to squish any of the moonfrogs. “Oh,” she said quietly before trying a silent ‘Accio moonfrog! and frowning the slightest bit when nothing stirred or jumped out of the water at her. “Maybe you can try to summon one, just in case?” She suggested with a nod, not minding one way or the other if she did.

She slowed down to a stop and tucked her wand behind her ear, shrugging one strap of her backpack off and twisting it around so that she could rummage around inside of it. She pulled from it a metal thermos, handpainted with a scene of wildflowers, and twisted the top off. The smell that greeted her nostrils was a rather unpleasant one, but one she was incredibly familiar with. The Lovegoods had been drinking this infusion of gurdyroots for as long as she could remember, as it had magical properties and kept the imbiber with a clear mind.

“Would you like some?” She offered Harri the thermos, the beetroot color of the infusion clear even in the dim wandlight. Again, she would be fine either way if Harri wanted some. Either they would share and both be able to think more clearly, or they wouldn’t and Luna would just have more for herself.

She tucked the thermos away, zipping her backpack and putting it back in its proper place on its back. She resumed her shuffling, her eyes constantly moving to pick up any sort of movement. But her careful shuffling was really only careful for not squishing moonfrogs. It was not careful, however, for tripping over roots.

Luna lurched forward, her hands outstretched to break her fall, splashing as she fell to her hands and knees in the little stream. “Oopsiedaisy,” she said, a hint of laughter in her voice. “At least that should have woken the moonfrogs up.” She felt the mud beneath her palms and she clenched her hands into fists, enjoying the feeling of the squishiness between her fingers.

Harri pulled out her wand, sending a furtive glance about her as was habit when using magic in muggle-inhabited areas, then she remembered where she was and what time it was – there wouldn’t be anyone around. “Accio moonfrog!” Hm, nothing, though she did wonder if it was because her heart wasn’t really in it – if a frog had landed in her hand she’d probably have squealed and dropped it anyway. She lowered her wand, though not before considering casting Lumos for a bit more light to see by. If moonfrogs only liked moonlight (and, if they were here) she’d just scare them away and she highly doubted Luna would thank her for that, so she thought better of it.

Angharad continued to wade along the little stream, keeping her feet close to the floor of the riverbed in hopes of disturbing something. She heard Luna stop behind her and turned to see her pull out a flask. “Oh,” Harri wrinkled her nose before she could stop herself. “Um, no - thank you. I had dinner just before we left – so full.” Why she couldn’t just say no without giving an excuse she didn’t know – Luna wouldn’t care, so why did she?

For the same reason she was in a bog in the middle of nowhere, in the dark, looking for creatures that she was almost certain didn’t really exist – she was desperate for human interaction. That was not to say that Luna was the result of her desperation, she was incredibly grateful to her blonde companion. That, and she still harboured guilt from her early years at Hogwarts where she’d sniggered behind Luna’s back with everyone else.

Angharad pushed these thoughts to the back of her mind. She’d come out here to get away from thinking, to get distracted and have something to do. “Hey Luna,” she started, speaking quietly so as not to frighten away any potential creatures lurking underfoot, but as Harri turned she was greeted with a loud splash followed by Luna on all-fours in the water. Harri’s eyes widened in shock, but as soon as she registered that Luna was okay she let out a nervous chuckle, followed by a more heartfelt burst of laughter as the feeling grew in her chest.

Harri’s brown eyes crinkled at the corners from the grin on her face, the laughter having died away – her pent up feelings suddenly set free and a small weight lifted from her shoulders. “Sorry, are you alright?” She moved to offer a hand to help Luna to her feet.

Her wand was still tucked securely behind her right ear, and Luna turned her head slowly from side to side as her eyes scanned for any sign of movement that wasn’t simply the rippling surface of the water. But that was all she found: water. Where were all the moonfrogs? Had they all migrated already? Had she done her calculations wrong about their mating habits? Maybe they were just all off together somewhere, celebrating a birthday or something like that. Who was she to tell nature how to behave?

Her laughter picked up in tempo as Harri joined in, and she let go to the last bit of hope she was clinging to that maybe she hadn’t scared away all the moonfrogs. “Oh yes, quite alright,” Luna said calmly once she had regained her composure, continuing to squish the mud between her fingers. “I can see much better from here.” From anyone else, that might have sounded like an excuse, some sort of method to save face once they had tripped, but Luna was rather sincere about the whole thing. She really could see much better from her new vantage point, though all she continued to see was nothing, not a single moonfrog.

“I think I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s nothing over here.” She took Harri’s proffered hand and stood up slowly with a slight shrug before she leaned down again, this time to intentionally dip her hands in the water, washing off the newly accumulated mud from her digits. “Sorry,” she said, indicating the mud she had transferred to her friend’s hand. She straightened up and dried her hands on her sweater, scrunching up her face in thought as she scanned their surroundings once again.

She looked intensely at Harry, her smile fading the slightest bit. “Maybe the Welsh moonfrogs have different behaviors from the English ones.” She looked away, continuing to talk but more to herself than to her friend. “But the moon doesn’t have an England or Wales, so they shouldn’t be able to tell the difference. Unless of course the moon does have England or Wales, I’ve never been there so I can’t be too sure and I don’t know anyone who has.” There was the wizard who had claimed to bring back moonfrogs from the moon, but he had expounded on the details of actually being on the lunar surface.

With a final shrug, Luna took another few steps forward, continuing her squelching down the creek. “It’s still early, maybe they’re just not awake yet.” But she didn’t get more than a few feet away before stopping again, hearing a distant but very distinct crack of a branch. “But something is awake over there,” she said with a small grin, stepping out of the water and following after the sound.

The laughter echoed away but the smile remained happily fixed on Harri’s lips. If one was ever feeling a little lost or down, Luna was always there with her seemingly continuous optimism – as if she had a spring of it insider here, always bubbling over and spilling forth for others to drink from.

Harri took some of Luna’s weight as she got back to her feet, their hands squelching together as the mud oozed out between their fingers like some kind of ectoplasm. Angharad’s face scrunched up a little at the feeling, slightly disgusted – but by the mud, not Luna. “Uh, that’s okay.” Harri mirrored Luna after a moment’s delay and reached her palm into the water, rubbing her fingers to get the worst of the offending substance off. As she stood back up she shook her hand to flick the excess water off, a slight grimace on her features.

The young Welsh woman listened intently as Luna rattled off her theory, nodding at the appropriate moments. Internally she had to wonder how Luna’s mind worked. Harri didn’t know anyone else with such a wild and vivid imagination. Luna seemed convinced that anything was possible, even if it wasn’t probable. “Well, maybe it’s something to do with the weather or temperature.” She found herself offering her own theory, caught up in Luna’s world. “I mean, the moon must be a lot colder than here?”

Harri held back as Luna moved away, wary of the blonde girl taking a foul step and ending up in  the stream again. She nodded, though she knew Luna couldn’t see it, her eyes focused on the ground before her feet as she moved to take a step— at the same moment Luna paused and Angharad’s head snapped up, foot in mid-air she almost overbalanced, her arms waving frantically to regain her balance. She gingerly lowered her foot to the ground, the water making a quiet sloshing sound as her boot penetrated the surface.

“Wait, Luna!” she hissed quietly, a little worried about what might be lurking in the dark – no werewolves at least, but it could be almost anything else. A furtive glance around and Harri realised she would rather follow her companion to whatever might be waiting than remain out here alone. She tiptoed quickly out of the riverbed, catching up to her fellow Ravenclaw as she headed for a lightly wooded area, drawing her wand – just in case.

Luna nodded enthusiastically as Harri offered her own thoughts. “That’s true,” she slowed her nodding as she thought. The moon was certainly colder than it was here, but it was too early for snow and she was sure that they were here. It was simply a matter of where. She sighed the tiniest bit, relaxing her face from the thought-scrunch she had it in.

She moved almost as soon as she was done point out the sound, following the cracking branch through the dark, dimming the light from her wand so as not to scare away whatever it was. She heard Harri’s voice behind her, but it was mostly white noise to her now, so focused on finding the source of the noise before it retreated. The trees were starting to thin as Harri caught up and Luna nudged her arm lightly with her elbow and tipping her head in the direction she thought they should head.

She was ready. She had practiced this over and over again, using her reluctant barn cat as practice. She knew which wards to use and when, how much free space she needed to leave, how to transport the ward to somewhere safe so she could properly catalogue her creature. She was ready to put all her practice to good use. And if something went awry, she had a random collection of ointments, salves, and potions and a working knowledge of first aid to at least get themselves somewhere safe to apparate. She had left out this bit of information when she had announced their plans for the day, somewhat on purpose, but it was nice to know that she was prepared all the same.

The sound came again, though this time it was much closer, nearly underfoot. Luna lowered her wand, casting the light from the tip along the ground, illuminating a few piles of leaves and a downed log or two. She took a tentative step forward and shifted her weight to one foot so she could use the other to poke at the closest pile of leaves. Moon frogs were friendly, after all. She shifted the leaves a bit to the side, holding her wand aloft, ready with her wards. She didn’t stop to think that maybe she could have given Harri something to do rather than just stay by her side, but she had lost all focus except for the task at hand. She stuck her toe into the pile just a little farther, taking a quick hop back as something scurried out from under the leaves.

All the practice in the world had prepared her for exactly this: Luna flicked her wrist and what appeared to be a small white dome materialized around the fleeing creature, who stopped short as it ran into the wall of Luna’s ward. She didn’t bother hiding her excitement, hopping over the pile of leaves and towards the ward with a grin. She knelt down, leaning her face almost to the ground to get a proper look at what she had caught: either the moon frog was molting and sickly thin, or Luna had managed to catch a field mouse.