Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars! [Closed]

[hack-rat.livejournal.com]

 Alex peaked his head into the building that Luna's comm-ring was pinging from. He tentatively stepped in, holding his laptop. He had kept his promise. As soon as he knew that he would not be needed for anything more he found where Luna was the same way he found Shiva and rushed to be with her.

He ventured, "Luna?"  He put his laptop down on a table as he passed it, looking around. Alice too seemed to be peering around, looking for the whimsical girl.

Comments

[hack-rat.livejournal.com]

"E-Electronics," Alex corrects, only to promptly inquire, "G-Gobstones? Q-Quidditch? WWN? W-we have chess an' c-card games too. Y-you mentioned Ch-Chocolate Frogs before too. Th-they're not real frogs, a-are they?"

He hoped that if he just kept things up, that her expression would start getting a little less strained.

[isee-snorkacks.livejournal.com]

She shakes her head slightly. "Electronics, yes. I never got a chance to take a Muggle Studies course, so I get a lot of the words wrong." She pauses, her expression easing. "Gobstones I can't say I know much about--I've never played it. All I know is that they squirt this foul-smelling liquid at you if you do poorly. It would make the Common Room smell for days. Quidditch is our main sport, played on broomsticks. It's a wonderful game--there are six goal posts, three on each side, and the goal is to get the Quaffle through the other team's hoops. But there are two other kinds of ball on the playing field--there are the Bludgers, which rocket around, trying to knock players off their broomsticks, that are beaten off by the Beaters, and there's the Snitch, which is a tiny golden ball with wings that flies around for the entire game. If the Seeker catches the Snitch, the match is over, and the team of the Seeker wins 150 points. The WWN is the Wizarding Wireless Network. It's our version of the radio. They play lots of good music, and news broadcasts. Daddy always hated it when I turned it up when they played the Weird Sisters, but their music is so good!"

[hack-rat.livejournal.com]

"W-wait," he says, still several sentences behind, "Y-you r-ride broomsticks?" That wasn't just part of stories? The wands, okay, they made a decent amount of sense, but the brooms? He totally missed the explanation of how the game was played, and barely registered what the WWN was. His mind was too busy trying to register the whole broomstick thing.

[isee-snorkacks.livejournal.com]

"Broomsticks, yes," she says, nodding. "They're bewitched to fly, though these days it's much more complicated than that. They have to be finely tuned and regulated to meet safety standards, because Quidditch is quite a dangerous sport, and that's without riding a shoddy broom."

[hack-rat.livejournal.com]

Alex, once again, stares at Luna, absolutely amazed. "Y-you fly?"

He imagined there had to be a shadow eater somewhere that had the ability to fly, but it still struck him as fascinating. "Wh-what sorta regulations are there?"

[isee-snorkacks.livejournal.com]

"Oh, yes. Wizards have flown since the 900s, but always on broomsticks or carpets. Carpets have been banned in Britain, though--they're hazardous to the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy, because it's quite hard to make them invisible."

She has to think for a moment, eyes drifting ceilingward.

"Well, I suppose they regulate speed and aerodynamics, to keep players from flying too quickly, and there are all kinds of spells and charms put on to protect against tampering and shattering, though that didn't stop Harry's broom from shattering that one time, though I suppose not many things could survive hitting the Whomping Willow. I don't really know the half of it, though--I commentated a few school games of Quidditch, but I'm terrible at broomstick flying. I prefer thestrals."

[hack-rat.livejournal.com]

Alex continues to look at her completely shocked and lost. Quidditch, broomstick flying, magic carpets, a Whomping Willow? Thestrals? Wizarding Secrecy?

He was stunned into silence for several minutes, wondering if Luna would explain anything more.