"Miss Hamilton's mother is a Veela, right?"
"She has very strong maternal characteristics..."
"Her hair is silvery, almost golden... Compared to a quarter-Veela, she indeed resembles a Veela more..."
"Her eyes are blue too... like gemstones..."
"Mr. Sca... Mr. Scamander?" Lyla huddled in her chair, looking at Newt, who had been enthusiastically circling her. She spoke timidly. "Are you..."
"Documenting." Newt gave a highly embarrassed smile. "Sorry... I... I haven't seen one before..."
"Ah... it's fine... I just... I'm just a little..." Seeing Newt apologize, Lyla quickly lowered her head as well out of sheer social anxiety. "Sorry!"
Luna smiled, watching the two socially awkward wizards apologize to each other at the exact same time.
Lyla Hamilton was a new friend she had made. In fact, she was her first friend besides her mom, dad, and the Crumple-Horned Snorkack. She had a beautiful appearance, with pointed ears like the moon and eyes like stars.
But she was always worried about something, or perhaps severely afraid of something.
Luna didn't quite understand why, but she instinctively knew it might be related to her appearance. After all, Lyla always covered her face with a hood and wore a silver mask when working with the Ministry of Magic.
This was a good thing, because wearing a mask could effectively prevent catching Spattergroit.
Getting back to the point, Luna had thought for a long time about her new friend's constant fear but couldn't find a good solution. The second she decided to visit Mr. Scamander, however, she felt she should invite Lyla along.
Mr. Scamander definitely wouldn't say anything bad about Lyla's appearance. In fact, most people probably wouldn't say anything bad, would they?
But Luna had heard that some bad wizards looked down on Muggle-borns, or wizards with Veela, vampire, or werewolf blood.
'It's actually pretty cool... So she and Mr. Scamander will definitely get along...' Luna had thought as she wrote the invitation letter. She hadn't even considered whether Lyla would refuse, just as she didn't doubt that the two would become friends.
"Mr. Love... Miss Lovegood... Can you stop Mr. Scamander..." Lyla cast a panicked, pleading look at Luna. "He wants to pull out my hair!"
"Ah... I have some of Lyla's hair right here." Luna, slowly coming out of her daze, gently took out a silver strand and handed it to Newt.
Then, ignoring Lyla's thoroughly shocked expression, she asked, "Mr. Scamander, do you have your suitcase?"
"Ah... yes... do you want to see it?" Newt seemed genuinely happy to have such an excellent opportunity to study a Half-Veela. He casually pointed toward the next room. "It's on the table..."
Hearing him say that, Lyla jumped up even faster than Luna and hurried into the room.
'My previous view was completely wrong.' Lyla thought, her heart racing. 'Newt Scamander is a much more dangerous person than Dumbledore.'
'Dumbledore would probably only arrest me to use me against Voldemort, but Newt might just slice me up for study!'
'Although Mr. Scamander didn't treat me as a freak... he probably just treats me as a rare magical creature, right? What about Luna then?'
Lyla subconsciously looked at the young girl skipping towards her.
'She certainly treats me as a friend, right?'
'That's right, I'm her first genuine friend!' Lyla reasoned. 'Besides her dad and that Crumple-Horned Snorkack... Wait, are she and Newt friends?'
While Lyla was pondering this, Luna had already arrived beside her.
"Lyla, that's Mr. Scamander's suitcase."
"Suit... suitcase..." Lyla subconsciously looked in the direction Luna was pointing. There was indeed a battered leather suitcase resting on the table.
But... that was absolutely no ordinary suitcase!
"An Energy Storage Array combined with a Spatial Teleportation Array , and also a transformation array and a Secret Lock Array!" Lyla gasped.
"A mastercrafted combination of four Magic Arrays..." Lyla eagerly circled the suitcase, completely forgetting her fear. "What an ingenious design... If you press this button, you can activate the transformation array to convert the contents of the second set of compartments."
"And the core of this Spatial Teleportation Array is engraved with Ancient Runes... This is much larger than the space opened up by a standard Undetectable Extension Charm..."
"Furthermore, the transformation array also seems to be engraved with auxiliary support spells... Is this some kind of weather control?" Lyla gently traced the surface of the suitcase with her fingers, then drew a small circular array over it.
As her hand moved, the old leather emitted a faint, magical glow.
"Indeed... This is a sunny weather transformation array." Lyla nodded, feeling a phantom burst of warm sunlight. "Then the others should correspond to rainy days... snowy days..."
"Can it even switch between night and day?"
"So many arrays meticulously engraved onto such a small physical object... This is definitely not something that can be made in a day or two..."
"It's a masterpiece!" Lyla exclaimed, practically hugging the suitcase.
"I want to make rubbings of the core runes on it... Luna... Ah... Miss Lovegood, can you help me..."
Realizing something, Lyla suddenly froze. She looked at the widely smiling Luna and quickly covered her mouth.
'I was just internally criticizing Newt... how did I start obsessively muttering about Magic Array Studies exactly like him in an instant?'
"So... sorry... Lovegood..."
"Lyla was just calling me Luna." Luna tilted her head and handed Lyla a piece of blank parchment.
"You want to make rubbings of the arrays on it, don't you?"
"Ah... yes... thank you..." Lyla fumbled to take the parchment. She looked down awkwardly. "I got easily distracted by academic research again... You must think it's very... boring, right?"
"No, it's very interesting." Luna shrugged lightly and leaned against the table. "It's the first time I've seen Lyla so interested in something."
"Magic Array Studies... it sounds quite interesting indeed." She pointed at the subtle patterns on the box. "So Mr. Scamander's case has so many functions because of the magic arrays on it?"
"Yes... yes!" Lyla pursed her lips. She carefully placed the parchment over the suitcase's surface and gently waved her custom ebony wand.
"Magic arrays are truly amazing... just a little bit can do so much," Luna murmured, watching the complex runic patterns gradually being outlined onto the paper. "Does Hogwarts have such a course?"
"Ah, sorry, I forgot Lyla isn't a Hogwarts student..." Luna suddenly lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "You're an Auror from the Ministry of Magic in charge of Spattergroit prevention, right?"
"I... I'm not..."
"I won't expose you, don't worry, Lyla!"
'I really am not...' Lyla desperately wanted to explain that she was actually the new joint Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts. But saying so out loud seemed far too awkward.
Besides, she looked at the genuinely happy Luna and didn't want to spoil her mood. After all, the eleven-year-old had just praised Magic Array Studies! It was an appreciation completely different from Dumbledore and that intimidating vampire, Scrimgeour!
"Are you... are you very interested in Magic Array Studies?" Lyla subconsciously asked in a soft, hopeful voice.
But as soon as the words left her mouth, Lyla felt a spike of regret.
'What if Luna is just being polite? Am I bothering someone again?'
Prone to catastrophic overthinking, she carefully scrutinized Luna's expression. Lyla was surprised to find that the usually dazed girl looked particularly serious at this moment.
"Mm!" Luna nodded, her large silvery eyes sincere. "I'm very curious about Magic Array Studies!"
"This is something Dad and Mom never talked about."
"I... I want to replicate this... box... in a few days." Lyla subconsciously pursed her lips, her extreme shyness fighting her academic excitement. "Do you... do you want to come and see?"