Sunday evening,
After her last lesson, Ivan did not return to his room to rest as he usually did. Instead, he left the castle and headed for the Forbidden Forest.
When she arrived at the meeting place, she was surprised to find Luna waiting for her.
With her back to him, she stood quietly under the Whomping Willow, wearing a strange robe with many ornaments, and a wreath of vines and flowers on her head.
It was easy to imagine Luna being stared at strangely as she walked, but her outfit fit the entire Forbidden Forest as though she belonged there.
"Looks like I'm late again…" Ivan said apologetically, taking a few steps forward.
"No, you're just in time. I was just talking to this Whomping Willow…" Luna turned around and stared at Ivan with her light blue eyes.
Ivan was taken aback for a moment, finding it difficult to understand how Luna managed to converse with a Whomping Willow, which actively attacked those who approached or touched it.
Therefore, Ivan was worried that the Willow would attack the young witch after seeing Luna standing under the tree with no protection.
Perhaps guessing Ivan's thoughts, Luna reached out to caress the tree and explained, "The Whomping Willow is just afraid that we'll hurt it, and if it can sense that you mean well, then it won't hurt you!"
Suspicious and curious, Ivan took a few steps into the Whomping Willow's range of attack, but the tree stood still and silent.
"See, it's easy, isn't it?" Luna said quietly.
Yvonne nodded and smiled. "Yes, it is amazing!"
Luna also smiled, then seemed to think of something and said happily, "By the way, I haven't had the chance to congratulate you!"
"What?" Yvonne asked, confused.
"Congratulations on defeating the Merpeople, the Giant Squid, and the Grindylow, and rescuing the fallen warriors and hostages. That was quite something!" Luna praised him with exaggerated enthusiasm.
Ivan didn't know how to respond. To be honest, he didn't think his performance in the second match was impressive at all. All he could say was that his opponents were too lame for his liking.
"Also, you defeated a dragon and flew on top of it, just like the dragoons do in the stories!" Luna said briskly, as if humming a tune.
Ivan was even more embarrassed when Luna told him about Norbert, and quickly interrupted her. "Well, don't flatter me. We have to find the Tracking Tree and the Crumple-Horned Snorkack, don't we?"
"Yeah, what are we waiting for?" Luna nodded, looking excited as she grabbed Ivan by the wrist and pulled him into the Forbidden Forest.
Yvonne did not expect Luna's mood to change so quickly, but she allowed her to keep her from running, pointing the way.
"You're going the wrong way!"
"Like that? But I think we should look over there…"
… .
It was almost six o'clock in the evening, and the sky was growing dark. The dense forest blocked out the afterglow of the evening sun, and it was dark all around.
It seemed to Luna that this was the first time she had wandered into the Forbidden Forest so late, but she was in high spirits, pulling Ivan along at a run until she ran out of steam.
Before she knew it, they were deep inside the Forbidden Forest, and there was nothing but brush and trees in sight. Luna wondered if she was lost, but she was not worried at all. She turned to Ivan and asked anxiously, "Are we there?"
"We're almost there!" Yvonne called out as the sky turned completely dark. Deciding that the time was right, she pulled Luna sideways.
After passing through a shrubbery, the road opened up.
Ivan stopped and turned to Luna. "We're here," he said. "This is it!" The witch was frozen in place, her beautiful blue eyes wide and staring at the scene in front of her.
In front of her was a deep sea of flowers. Countless blue and purple flowers covered every corner of her vision, each petal glowing faintly in the night as if by magic.
In the middle of the sea of flowers stood a towering tree!
It was as thick as three men's arms, and more than twice as tall as the trees in the distance. Its dense branches and leaves were like a "big umbrella" with a bluish-purple surface. Upon closer inspection, Luna saw that they were blue-purple flowers, with petals falling from the sky from time to time.
It was obvious that the flowers on the ground were falling from the trees.
Luna stared at it for a long time, and Ivan was beginning to think that something might have gone wrong, when the little witch suddenly moved. She grabbed the hem of her robe and ran into the sea of flowers.
The earth seemed to have been awakened, and countless elves with pointed ears and glowing wings flew out from under the petals, lighting up the night sky.
"The Traceless Fairies… they're the Traceless Fairies!" Luna shouted happily as she stepped on the petals, as if someone had cast a powerful Pleasure Charm on her.
The Vanishing Fairies seemed to be attracted to Luna as they circled her.
Perhaps because she was so happy, Luna was left alone with her eyes closed as she circled the flowers. She seemed to be using the flowers as a stage for Christmas Eve, and the Vanishing Fairies were happily playing to her.
Ivan didn't want to spoil the little witch's fun, so he sat on the petal-strewn floor and enjoyed Luna's solo dance — a fairy tale for her alone…
To be able to perfectly recreate the scene in Luna's imagination, in addition to the credit of Legilimency, the Level 7 Transfiguration was also credited. If it were before the Fourth Blood Condensation, Ivan was sure that he would never have been able to perform such a vast scene of transformation!
The depletion of his magic was also a major problem, as the tree had nearly drained him of it.
However, it was also because of the difficulty of casting the spell that his Transfiguration mastery had improved, which was a pleasant surprise for Ivan.