Chapter Text
The walk to the Owl House always feels a little dangerous, nestled as it is outside of town, in the woods. Every witchling is taught to stay out of large, secluded areas such as these, and even grown, accomplished witches would think twice about coming all the way out here alone. If the risk of dangerous demons and criminals weren’t enough, having no other buildings nearby is bad news when a rainstorm rolls in.
Today, Amity is not alone.
She wishes she was.
“Someone’s excited to see her girlfriend.”
“Yeah, look how fast she’s walking.”
“I’m walking fast to get away from you two,” Amity says, throwing a look over her shoulder at Ed and Em, trailing behind.
This is the first time they’ll have gotten to talk to Luz since the two of them started dating, and while it’s not a moment she’s looking forward to, it’s also one she knows she can’t put off forever.
It’ll be a good baby step before she has to reintroduce the poor girl to her mother.
“Oh look!” Ed pitches forward, closing the distance in long strides so he can throw a hand around Amity’s shoulders, “There she is!”
“Hi Luz!” Emira calls, joining Amity on her left, waving to the girl now standing at the edge of the treeline, near the clearing containing the Owl House.
Amity shakes her siblings off, lifting a hand in greeting-
She squints at the figure, with her familiar hoodie and her smile, and...
“That’s not Luz,” Amity says, walking right past the girl without another glance.
Edric and Emira protest, telling her to stop being rude to her friend, and stand on either side of what is supposed to be Luz, greeting her like usual, but suspiciously not reaching out to touch her.
“Wow, how’d you know?”
All 4 of them jump- including the illusory Luz, Amity notes, who she guesses is being controlled by Emira.
Another Luz steps out from behind a tree, peering at her copy.
The illusory Luz turns, facing her, and mirrors her curious posture.
“Wow, cool illusion, guys,” not-Luz says.
Luz laughs.
“So, Amity,” Ed says, “which one’s your girlfriend?”
“If any?” Emira adds.
“That one,” Amity points, without hesitation, to the girl who joined them second.
“How can you tell?” Luz repeats.
“She looks just like me!” Not-Luz brags.
“She really does.” Luz agrees.
Amity rolls her eyes, waving to the imposter.
“They got your face wrong,” Amity says, “just a little, but enough. It’s always safer to copy someone you know better than the person you’re trying to fool.”
“Looks fine to me...”
“You can’t tell because now that you’re standing in front of them, they can subtly adjust it to match better.” she says, “Instead of having to picture you from memory, they have a reference.”
“So if you turned around and we swapped places a bunch, you wouldn’t know who was who?”
Amity frowns.
“Ooh, let’s do that!” Ed says, lifting a hand to cast something-
Amity swings a hand towards the illusory Luz before he can complete the action. Her hand passes straight through it, confirming her suspicions, and the other girl disappears in a cloud of smoke.
“Aw.”
“Goodbye il-Luz-sion.” Luz says.
“Let’s go inside.” Amity suggests.
She reaches out to touch Luz’s shoulder as casually as possible, in the way that one’s girlfriend might do... and is relieved when she finds the girl to be corporeal. It would be like them to try to throw her off with two illusions. She just can’t let them know she wasn’t completely sure there was only one.
Hooty swings the door open, wrapping around to follow them into the house.
“That was pretty impressive, though,” Luz says, seemingly trying to assure her siblings that their trickery was a good effort.
“Too bad Amity’s spent so much time studying your cute face,” Emira coos.
Luz looks very quickly in the other direction, shoulders hunching.
“No, it’s because I know better with you two!” Amity defends, “They’ve been playing these tricks my whole life.”
“Oh yeah?” Luz asks, “Like what else?”
“One time when I was younger,” Amity says, glaring at the two of them, “they threw a blanket over my head and carried me around the house to disorient me and then dropped me back in what I thought was my room... but was actually the sitting room.”
The twins howl with laughter at this. Luz tries to look serious, respecting Amity’s annoyance, but she can see a smirk trying to break out at the corner of her mouth.
“Don’t let ‘em think you can’t get them back just because you’re younger.”
Luz smiles as Eda swings around the corner, a glass of something it is far too early to be drinking in her hand.
“Why, I’m two years younger than Lily, and I used to drive her crazy all the time.”
“Yes, I believe that,” Amity says, sitting on the couch.
She regrets the action almost immediately as Emira flops onto her lap, followed by Edric, who sits on her lap, until they are both crushing their younger sister into the fortunately comfortable cushions.
“Get OFF!” Amity smacks her hands across her sister’s arms, reaching around to punch Ed in the leg, “Get off, get off, get off-”
“Do tell about the kinds of ways you’d drive her crazy,” Emira asks casually, ignoring Amity’s protests.
“Well I suppose it’s more about personality than age. You might not have the stuff, kid.” Eda says, first addressing Amity before answering Emira’s question, “It’s all about knowing what really pushes their buttons, you know-?”
“I thought you two said you were going to stop being mean to Amity,” Luz interrupts, crossing her arms.
“We’re not being mean!” Edric says, at the same time as Emira replies, “I said no such thing.”
“We already made up for the diary incident,” her brother continues, “You can’t expect us to grovel forever.”
“No wait,” Emira shakes her head, “Luz is right, Ed.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Amity doesn’t want us sitting on her...”
“You’re so right,” he stands, stepping out of the way, around Luz.
Emira gets to her feet too, smirking, and moves in the opposite direction.
“I think she’d much rather have you,” Edric says.
Amity understands what is happening, pushing on the seat to try to propel herself out of it as fast as possible, but does not have time.
Before she can fully stand, Luz comes crashing into her, pushed by Ed, and lands in Amity’s lap, sending them both heavily back onto the couch.
Luz rolls off immediately, cheeks flushed. Amity knows she’s not faring much better, but this time it’s half out of anger.
“That’s it!” Amity says, “I don’t know why I agreed to let you two come! Go home!”
“Aw come on, I thought you wanted our help?” Emira says, “You can’t do the spell.”
“YEAH,” Hooty agrees, “WHAT ABOUT MY STUCCO...?”
“You can cast the forcefield and then leave.”
“In the rain?” Luz asks, looking nervously between Amity and her siblings.
Amity is, of course, not actually going to leave the twins to walk home in a deadly rainstorm. Unfortunately, Luz seems to be the only one in the room who believes she would actually do so.
“No,” she mutters, “but they can hang out with the owl and leave us alone.”
Too bad, because she would have liked to leave that threat open for her siblings to actually consider.
“Uh uh, open door rule in this house,” Eda says, holding up a finger before punctuating her statement with a long sip of her drink.
Amity flushes red as Luz looks at the wall again. Actually, she thinks, she might just go for a walk in this rainstorm herself.
She turns sharply on her heel, back outside.
The clouds hang threateningly overhead, having finally rolled in from over the water. She could probably outrun them on a staff if she flew home right now.
“Thanks for coming to help,” Luz says, stepping outside. A glance over Amity’s shoulder confirms that she’s talking to the twins, “I haven’t figured out the forcefield spell quite yet, and since Eda can’t cast it anymore...”
“Yeah, of course!” Edric says, “We’ve never made one big enough to cover a house before- even a little one like this- but we should be able to do it.”
“The manor is rainproof.” Amity says, casting a critical eye over whatever would need protection here. Luz talks like the house is the actual body of the owl tube, so she supposes it makes sense that the house demon wouldn’t like any part of it getting rained on.
With the pizzazz of any great illusionist, the twins step away from the house, waving their hands to form a large ball of light between them.
As Amity watches them seemingly effortlessly coax the magic into growing larger and stronger, she tries to ignore the twinge of jealousy in her chest. It took her long enough to learn the spell to cast a personal forcefield; she could never imagine doing something this big, let alone expect it to stay up for the duration of a storm.
Luz shoots her a quizzical look, touching her arm. Amity tries to release the tight expression on her face, smoothing her features into something more neutral.
Finally, Emira lets go of the light, pushing it towards the Owl House as Edric waves his hands, shaping it to cover the entirety of the building without wasting too much room.
The forcefield snaps into place, twinkling a pretty shade of blue.
“Nice work!” Eda says, nodding appreciatively, “Let’s get inside and find you kids a snack.”
Amity sits down on the couch with her knees to her chest, peering over her shoulder at her siblings, who follow Eda dutifully into the kitchen.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
“Okay...” Luz sits on the crack between the middle cushion and the one Amity is perching on, “Are you still mad at them for teasing you?”
“...No.” Amity says. She’s not.
Luz nods several times. Amity’s not quite sure how to interpret the gesture, but she feels bad for holding back so much.
“I can’t cast that,” she says, in a rare moment of vulnerability. She regrets the words almost immediately.
“The forcefield?”
“ I can cast a forcefield. ”
Luz nods, again.
“I mean,” Amity curls into a tighter ball, “not one so big. It’s a difficult spell.”
“It looks hard,” Luz says, “last time Eda cast it, she passed out!”
That doesn’t sound good.
“Well, maybe that was the curse,” Luz continues, at her concerned expression, “I mean, it was before she lost her magic completely, but still, it took it out of her.”
“Most witches probably couldn’t cast one that large, so I shouldn’t mind.” Amity says softly, “And I shouldn’t be surprised, either. The twins got my mother’s skill.”
“What about your dad?”
“He’s smart.” Amity shrugs.
He’s not quite as skilled at magic, she thinks, and he’s a bit odd. Somehow despite the man’s accomplishments, and her mother’s genuine respect for him, it’s never seemed to be a good thing that he’s the one she takes after more.
Luz does not reply immediately. The girl seems to choose her words carefully in important moments. It’s something Amity really likes about her.
“I was disappointed I couldn’t help with the forcefield, either.”
“Well, you shouldn’t be able to cast magic at all,” Amity says, a little too bitterly, and appends her statement, “so I’d say you’re doing very well.”
“Yeah, I’ve adapted,” Luz nods, “I’ll never be able to do magic as naturally as witches from the Boiling Isles, but in other ways, glyph magic has actually allowed me to do things other witches couldn’t.”
Amity can’t deny that. Luz picked up the fireball spell much faster than she did, technically. Some part of her feels like Luz is cheating, but she doesn’t like that part of her.
Not deterred by her silence, Luz continues, “I bet there’s a lot of stuff you can do that your siblings can’t.”
“...Abomination magic?” Amity shrugs, “But they’re pretty proficient with all sorts of spells. The forcefield certainly isn’t an illusion.”
A smile tugs at the corner of her mouth. It would be really funny if it was though. She supposes they’ll find out if the owl starts howling.
“What about that flashlight you made me?” Luz prompts, encouraged by Amity’s smile, “That was a really creative use of glyph magic!”
“Oh that?” Amity waves a hand, dismissing the idea, “That was a fairly simple design.”
She’d made Luz a switch-activated flashlight, which worked by bringing two halves of a light glyph together to activate the spell. It was a fun experiment, and an attempt to save Luz time drawing, but it wasn’t all that impressive.
“The first version, maybe- but it was still smart-” Luz says, “but the second one you made has all these little clever mechanisms in it. It’s really cool.”
“Oh, thanks.” Amity says, flatly.
All her hard work trying to be a good witch, and Luz is most impressed with some trinket she designed in an hour and built in an evening.
“Do you have any more glyph invention ideas?”
Amity sighs, pulling her face out of her arms; she feels the ache in her joints from holding the ball she was curled in a little too tightly.
Somewhere in-between biting her tongue before she can insult Luz by blurting out that learning more glyph magic isn’t going to help her, and trying to think of a better way to end this conversation, Amity finally meets Luz’s eyes.
Her girlfriend is leaned in, a lopsided smile on her face. Her cheeks are raised in such a way that her eyes crinkle, which is how Amity knows you’re supposed to make your smile look when you want people to know you’re happy.
It’s the same kind of expression that Luz has when they meet to talk about the Azura books.
“Oh, well-” Amity says, trying to think of something she could help Luz with, “if you figure out the forcefield spell, maybe we could automate that? Have it be triggered by the rain, or something.”
“That’s a great idea!”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah!” Luz repeats, “That way we wouldn’t have to be out in the rain to activate the spell, and Hooty won’t get burned just because we aren’t home. How would you make it automatic?”
Amity thinks for a moment, lips flattened shyly.
“Uhm, some sort of valve?” she says, “Like a funnel that collects rainwater... the weight of the water at the bottom of the funnel could change the position of the valve, completing the forcefield spell circle and activating it.”
“That’s a great idea...” Luz grabs her notebook off the coffee table, handing it to Amity.
She doodles the gist of a working diagram on the empty open page. On the sheet to the left, Luz had scribbled out a number of theories for creating a forcefield.
“It would time out eventually, I suppose, but so will Ed and Em’s. The rainwater will just collect in the funnel once more if it stops before the storm ends, reactivating it.” Amity thinks aloud, “You would want to make sure you have some redundancy in place to activate the field in case the valve gets jammed, such as a backup lever.”
“Mhm. Write that down.”
“You also want to make sure the forcefield doesn’t reach the ground, so you don’t accidentally trap a witch outside of their house in a rainstorm. That’s more of the spell consideration.” Amity says, “And... this is all just my first thought. I’d have to test and revise it. The finished product would probably be much more complicated.”
Amity finishes writing a couple more ideas, then scans the notes Luz had compiled so far on the forcefield glyph combo.
With a quick glance to her girlfriend to make sure it’s okay, Amity slowly flips backwards through the notebook.
She lands on the pages full of Luz’s notes to create the invisibility spell, careful not to thumb one of the drawings and set the whole page on fire.
Light, but also... Power? Reflection? Color???
Beside the notes is a doodle of Luz’s own face, making a confused expression.
“Invisibility is an advanced spell.” Amity murmurs.
She was impressed enough when Luz debuted the new glyph combo for her, but seeing the girl’s thought process...
Amity has always been insecure about her spellcasting. She’s had to practice more than her siblings- and even, she suspects, most of her classmates- to learn the same spells. The only thing that puts her ahead of others is her hard work.
It looks like Luz works hard too.
“Maybe just being smart is not so bad,” Amity muses, “I mean, you’ve got no magical ability at all, but somehow...” she hands the book back to Luz, “I think you’ve got a real shot at being one of the strongest witches in the Boiling Isles.”
The smile has slipped off Luz’s face. Her eyes are no longer crinkling.
She hopes she hasn’t upset her. She’s always upsetting people.
“You think so, Amity?” Luz whispers, after a moment.
Amity nods.
“Thank you.”
“...You’re welcome.”
Luz takes her hand. Outside, the rain patters softly against a twinkling, blue forcefield.
“Hey Amity, do you want to know the best part about glyph magic?”
“...What’s that?”
Luz hands Amity a piece of paper. The invisibility spell.
“It can be shared.”
Her breath catches in her throat as she reaches out to touch the glyph, and she swallows the urge to inhale once more.
Amity watches her hands fade from view, immediately casting a highly advanced spell that she had never practiced for a moment before this second. It was even better than the training wand, and it didn’t run out of power.
“Glyphs like this help me and Eda... and with your help, we could make things that help all sorts of other people, too.” Luz says, as Amity reappears, “Think how happy Willow would be if there was a way to protect her flowerbeds when she wasn’t home.”
She had never particularly thought of inventions in that way. Certainly, her parents' inventions didn’t help anyone without hurting someone else at the same time.
She reaches back out to touch Luz’s hand again, missing the contact. Luz closes the gap, wrapping her fingers strongly around the back of Amity’s palm.
“Why don’t you take me through your thought process for the forcefield glyph combo.” Amity says, “Maybe talking it out will help you. I can explain to you how I cast the smaller version of the spell, too.”
“Sure!” Luz smiles widely. Her eyes are crinkling again. “And then you can shoot more ideas at me on the best way to make it automatic, okay!”
Luz clambers fully onto Amity’s cushion, cramming herself in-between her girlfriend and the backrest so they can both see the paper at once. She’s warm, where she’s pressed into her side, and in her effort to fit, her ankles are all criss-crossed over Amity’s own.
It’s certainly the most comfortable Amity’s ever been while working on magic. In all senses of the word. She rests her head on Luz’s shoulder, heart light, and draws the spell circle for a small, pink shield.