Author Notes: Thank you to my beta aigooism!
"You have to be kidding me," Harry muttered as he stared at the name of his new partner. He had known that Luna was an Auror but he never thought he would be working with her. He liked her. He really did, but that was completely different to working with her. He hadn't spoken to her for years, but from what he could remember, she was rather odd. He had always thought she would end up in some other career, perhaps as the editor of The Quibbler.
"Harry."
Harry jumped and glanced up wildly. Luna was leaning over the wall of his cubicle, staring at him wide-eyed. "Oh, Luna!" he exclaimed in relief.
Luna leaned forward and tucked a curl behind one ear. "Did I startle you, Harry?" she asked gravely.
"Oh, no," Harry said hastily. After all, he was an Auror and Aurors weren't supposed to be easily startled. He looked back down at the notification that the sleepy and ruffled owl had delivered only minutes ago and then back up at Luna. She beamed at him which derailed his thoughts again. "Would you like a seat?"
"Certainly," Luna said and appropriated a spare chair near his desk that just happened to belong to his neighbour Dickinson. Harry made a mental note to tell Dickinson later about his missing chair. "I was supposed to have a desk set up for me next to yours," Luna continued and looked around. "It doesn't seem to be here yet." Harry amended his mental note to tell Dickinson that his table might have been appropriated by the higher-ups in the Auror Department.
Harry wracked his brain for something to say and finally settled upon a simple question. "How've you been?"
"Do you really want to know? Or are you just asking." She had a serious expression on her face. "Many people just ask as a social thing, but I'm not sure whether you subscribe to that particular social convention."
Harry shifted uncomfortably in his chair. How was he supposed to respond to that?
Luna had an amused expression on her face when he didn't reply. "I'm very well, thank you, Harry. How are you?" she said politely.
"I'm good," Harry muttered, feeling as though somehow Luna had seen right through him. It was rather embarrassing.
Luna drew her chair up to his desk and propped her elbows up. She twirled a couple of strands of hair in her fingers. "We get our first assignment this afternoon. I'm looking forward to it."
Harry nodded. He felt rather flustered and picked up a piece of paper from the pile on his desk. "I'm sorry but I'm going to have to finish this," he said hastily.
"No problems," Luna said brightly. "I can occupy myself."
Harry busied himself with looking through the paperwork he had already completed. After a minute, he snuck a look at Luna out of the corner of his eyes and couldn't help but notice that she was leaning back in her chair, eyes closed, seemingly absorbed in her own world. With a mental sigh, Harry turned back to his work.
-***-
Harry found that working with Luna was both more difficult and easier than he had anticipated. His previous partners had all been more down to earth than she was, but Harry had suspected that to most of them, being an Auror was simply a job. They came into work at nine in the morning and clocked off at five. To his surprise, Harry found that Luna seemed to love being an Auror. It wasn't simply a job to her. She was passionate about the work.
"I wouldn't have thought that this was your kind of job," he commented one day as they filled out paperwork together. He looked over and could see Luna neatly filling out every single small aspect of the case.
"Why?" she asked.
Harry hesitated. "I just always thought you would end up working for The Quibbler." He was beginning to regret ever asking the question. Talking to Luna wasn't like talking to other people. Everybody else seemed to cloak their answers in half-truths and lies whereas talking to Luna was like being thrust into icy cold water. It was refreshing but also startling.
Luna laughed softly. "The Quibbler shut down a year ago, Harry. Our main offices were attacked by Sparkling Unicorns. Besides, I like being an Auror. I like solving puzzles."
"So do I," Harry said slowly. He didn't reply to the Sparkling Unicorns bit. He was beginning to get used to Luna's eccentricities.
-***-
"There's somebody trapped within the painting," Luna insisted, her eyes wide. Her hair was pulled up into a messy ponytail where half of her hair threatened to escape constantly. Her robes, although within regulation, always seemed slightly odd to Harry, even though he never used to notice women's clothing before he met her.
Harry sighed. "Who's trapped within the painting?" He stared over at the painting they had recently acquired from a woman who had been convicted by the Wizengamot of practicing the Dark Arts. Every item from the house had been vetted already by their best curse breakers and they had said that the painting was safe. Creepy, but safe. Harry shivered slightly as he looked at the detail of the dark rickety house on the painting.
Luna stared at him, her eyes earnest and pleading. "She trapped her stepdaughter in there. Her stepdaughter was too beautiful."
It all sounded to Harry like too much of a Muggle fairy tale. "There's no curse, no spell, no kind of magic whatsoever on the painting," he protested. "Except the ordinary kind of charms to stop the canvas from cracking and the frame from breaking."
"She's trapped in there," Luna insisted and then tapped her ears. "I can hear her screaming. There are more kinds of magic than you know and the magic that trapped her in there is very, very old."
To Harry's surprise, Luna had tears in her eyes. He reached over and placed a hand on her arm and was glad that she didn't flinch away. "I'll look into it," he said awkwardly. It might have sounded ridiculous, but there was something about the intuitive way Luna seemed to put things together that made him trust her.
-***-
Dickinson stared at him and Harry tried his best not to grit his teeth at the look of irritation that was now passing over the other man's face. "You're listening to Loony Lovegood?" he said, barely hiding the contempt in his voice.
Harry grimaced. "She is my partner," he said icily.
Dickinson laughed. Harry had never realised how grating his laugh was before this. He had once had a small crush on the other man but now the last vestiges of the crush was extinguished as he watched, appalled, as Dickinson munched on his lunch. The man seemed to eat like an ape whereas Luna always ate delicately; almost picky in the way she arranged her plate. "Don't tell me you actually like her," Dickinson scoffed. "I know about your fling with that Malfoy boy. You have better taste than to hook up with Lovegood."
Harry froze. "Don't you dare talk about Draco," he snapped. "That's none of your business."
Dickinson snorted. "I'll get the story out of you at some point."
"I'm asking you politely to please send the painting out to Winters. He knows more about cursed paintings than anybody else," Harry said though gritted teeth. He had always hated how much Dickinson had tried to pry into his and Draco's relationship. Not that there was anything really interesting about their relationship. They still remained friends. Harry still liked him and he suspected Draco felt the same way, but there were mitigating circumstances. For one thing, Draco was in Europe for the entire year.
Dickinson narrowed his eyes and let out a long sigh. "Fine. But I'm telling you, nothing'll come of it."
Harry pushed back his chair with a scrap. "Thank you," he said tightly and left.
-***-
"You were right! There was a girl trapped in the painting. They just got her out a few hours ago."
Luna stared at him, without a trace of surprise in her eyes. "Of course I was," she said mildly. "Now what are you doing here at my house so late?"
Harry took looked at his watch. It was rather late, he realised. In fact, it was nearing midnight. "I'm sorry," he said awkwardly. "I just got the news myself and thought you'd want to know."
She opened the door wider. "Come on in," she said. "I just put on a pot of tea. Would you like some?"
Harry hesitated. He wanted to go inside. There was something about the slight smile on Luna's lips and the brightness of her eyes that made him want to say yes. "Sure," he said and stepped inside. Looking around, he noticed an inordinate number of duck paintings.
"I like ducks," Luna said cheerfully as she led the way to her kitchen. "And painting. So I thought that I ought to paint ducks."
"They're lovely," Harry said and watched as she poured him a cup of tea. "Just a little bit of milk, thank you."
She held out a teacup and Harry reached out to take it. He shivered slightly as their fingers touched. "Are you cold?" Luna asked, a touch of concern in her voice. She placed the teacup on the table and stepped closer to him putting her hand on his forehead. "You're not warm."
Luna's hair smelled like strawberries and Harry could count the freckles on her face. His forehead definitely felt warm from where she had just touched it. Harry tried very hard not to breathe. He didn't want to shatter the tension in the air, didn't want to spoil the feeling right now of her closeness and the feeling of her hair tickling his face. He reached up a hesitant hand and touched her cheek.
"I thought you were gay," Luna said, tilting her head to one side.
Harry couldn't help but let out a surprised laugh. "I'm not gay. I like both men and women."
"Oh," Luna said and then she beamed up at him, one of those blinding smiles that made Harry's head spin and his stomach tumble. "Well then, in that case." She leaned forward and Harry could feel his heart pounding as she kissed him slowly and sweetly.
He could feel a curl of desire building in his stomach. The strength of the feeling surprised him. He lifted up a hand and ran it through her surprisingly soft, long hair.
"Would you like to come and see my bedroom, Harry?" Luna asked.
Harry stared. Over the past few weeks, he'd noticed how direct Luna was, but he hadn't expected her to be this direct. The first time he'd kissed Draco, they were both drunk. It was messy and Draco had dragged him down onto the living room floor of his apartment. Luna wasn't dragging him anywhere; she simply stared at him with widened eyes. "Your bedroom?" he repeated.
Luna nodded with a bright smile on her face. "I want to show you something."
-***-
"That is a starburst galaxy," Luna said as they were lying lazily on her bed. She had charmed her ceiling to look like the night sky.
Harry shrugged. He didn't know much about astronomy. All he knew was that the night sky above her bed made him feel peaceful. He leaned over and kissed her neck, enjoying the way she squirmed at his touch. He'd expected that they would end up on her bed, but not like this. Harry decided that he liked this though. It was strange being on her bed, staring up at what seemed like the night sky, but it wasn't uncomfortable. It was probably because Luna was acting so normally, he realised.
"Haven't you ever wondered if there was life out there?"
He blinked. To be honest, he hadn't. "Uh, no," he replied, leaning back down into his pillows. A curl of her hair tickled his cheek.
She rolled over and looked at him with serious eyes. "There's life out there and they're here in England already. In Cardiff. And London. I've seen them and painted them before."
Harry stared. He was never sure whether she was being serious or not.
Suddenly Luna laughed and leaned over to curl up in his arms. "You're looking too sombre, Harry." A wisp of her hair landed on his nose and he sneezed. "I haven't even told you about the devil's bridge in Scotland yet."
Harry pulled her across and kissed her. The devil's bridge, aliens and other trapped people in paintings could wait. There were other things that he wanted to think about at this moment. He brushed a wisp of her hair off her neck and kissed her shoulder, pushing her top down her arm.
"I was wondering when you'd realise that I wanted to show you more than starburst galaxies," Luna said, a mischievous smile on her face. She shifted and Harry found himself on his back with her straddling him, her long hair tickling his face. With an impish grin, she rocked slightly back and forth, brushing up against his cock.
Harry could feel himself hardening. "Well, what'd you want to show me then?" he asked, a slow smile spreading over his face.
"Many, many things," she said in a teasing tone as she bent down to kiss him again.
-fin