Happy Birthday, Luna Lovegood!
This story was written prior to Deathly Hallows' release so it is now extremely AU. It was written as a pseudo-sequel to my previous stories Feeling Nimbus and Hsurbriah a fo tnaw ni (In Want of a Hairbrush), but you do not need to read either of those first to understand it. It takes place sometime after the end of Half Blood Prince. In my version; Hogwarts does not re-open for Harry's seventh year. With the help of his friends Harry has been searching for Horcruxs, but is currently lodging at the Burrow with Ron and Hermione. Luna's father has been killed and her home destroyed. She currently resides at Order Headquarters. Draco has surrendered himself to the order having switch loyalties after both his parents were killed. Because no one in the Order trusts him he is currently under house arrest at headquarters as well. There is no character bashing in my story, but if you don't like H/L, don't bother reading. Otherwise I hope you enjoy it, if so maybe you'll leave me a nice review with some helpful hints to improve my writing.
Oh and by the way, I am not JK Rowling. These are not my characters, just my version of what happens to them. I take credit for nothing. Therefore I, unlike Jo, am poor.
Chapter One
Harry had had about all he could take of this. The sideway glances, the lovesick eyes, the holding of hands when they thought no one was looking, and now this; footsies under the table? It had gone too far. It was not that Harry was jealous or anything, well maybe a little jealous. But honestly, who did they think they were? This was almost as bad as when Ron was going out with Lavender Brown, minus the disgusting nicknames, of course it was only a matter of time.
Nope, that was it, Harry had had enough. He stood from the kitchen table, hoping by some slim chance they wouldn't notice. He wasn't so lucky.
"What's up mate? Don't you want to finish the game?" Ron questioned while still slightly distracted by what was apparently going on under the table. He and Harry had been playing a game of wizard chess. Harry of course knew immediately that something was not right with his friend when Harry was actually beating Ron.
Hermione, who was seated next to Ron (a bit too close, he might add), looked up curiously from the book she was supposedly reading. Of course Harry had noted that she hadn't turned a page in over five minutes.
"Actually, I was thinking that I might pop over to Grimmauld Place. I have a few things I need to discuss with Remus." Harry replied.
"You want to go there now?" Hermione sounded a bit concerned, "What is so important that you need to talk to him now?"
"It's nothing really…I just had a few things I wanted to um—I don't know…ask him, alright?" The truth is Harry didn't really have anything he needed to talk to Rhemus about, and he was quite certain that Hermione knew this, but he was having trouble thinking of a legitimate excuse. All he knew was that he needed to get far away from these two love birds and as quickly as possible before he did something drastic like losing his dinner right here on the kitchen floor.
Hermione stared at him incredulously before replying, "Oh…well…okay then. Do you mind if I change before we go?"
"No!—I mean yes. Listen …I don't need… You don't have to come with me. I mean…it's no big deal, I don't want to bother you guys or anything…"
"Oh Harry, don't be silly we don't mind. Do we Ron?"
Ron gave Hermione a look that, in every way, suggested he minded. It took Hermione only a moment to realize why Ron was giving her a rather annoyed look.
"Well…" Hermione immediately added "I mean…if you really do have things to discuss with Professor …with Rhemus, and uh…you don't mind going by yourself. I mean, I do have plenty of reading to catch up on and Ron didn't you say earlier that you wanted help with…uh something?"
"Er—I did? Uh…oh…yeah! That's right, yeah…uh…thanks for reminding me 'Mione. I did need help with…er...uh something."
Harry chuckled to himself when he noticed a slight flush creep up the necks and cheeks of both his mates' faces which immediately caused him to ask;
"Oh, really Ron? What exactly did you need Hermione's help with?"
Harry noticed Ron's flushed expression turn quickly to one of sick horror. But his reply came rather quickly considering the spot Harry was certain he had put him in.
"My sock drawer!"
"Your sock drawer?" Harry asked skeptically.
"Er…yeah, that's right, my sock drawer."
"Your sock drawer?" This time it was Hermione asking, sounding completely dismayed at Ron's rather lame reply. But she recovered quickly "Um, I mean—that's right. Now I remember, Ron asked me earlier if I would help him organize his sock drawer. It's terribly messy, filled with mismatched socks and all."
"Yeah—that's right, what she said." Ron agreed nodding his head a bit too vigorously.
It took all of Harry's will power not to burst out laughing at the two of them, but he held himself together and was able to muster a reply. "Okay then. Well you guys sound like you're going to be a bit busy. So I'm just going to pop over to Headquarters for the evening."
Harry had another thought. "Actually, I think I'm going to go ahead and spend the night there as well" and then added, "seeing as I own the place, I guess I should bunk there once and awhile." This of course would prevent Harry from returning to the Burrow and perhaps walking in on the two of them during something other than sorting socks.
"Are you sure Harry?" Hermione and Ron both replied a bit more enthusiastically than Harry would have liked. Hermione quickly added "you don't have to stay there just because you own the place Harry."
"Uh—yeah, I know. But I want to…you know…for a change of scenery and all."
"Oh—okay," said Hermione, who at this point didn't seem to care what Harry's excuse was,"but Harry, I would suggest you floo there rather than apparate. That way you can go directly to the kitchen. You don't want the chance of being spotted outside Headquarters while you wait for someone to let you in, I think Mrs.Weasley would insist on it anyway."
Setting up the floo connection between Headquarters and the Burrow had been one of the last things that Professor Dumbledore had done for the Order, that, and making Tonks the new secret keeper of Grimmauld Place.
"Harry, you are going to let Mrs. Weasley know that you are going, aren't you?"
Harry hadn't thought about having to tell Mrs. Weasley his plans, not that it was really any of her business in the first place, but she would definitely throw a fit if Harry didn't tell her. He only hoped she wouldn't nix the whole idea all together. He wasn't kidding when he said he needed a change of scenery.
"Er…do you guys have any idea when she might be getting back?"
Ginny and her mother had accompanied Neville to St. Mungo's to visit his parents late in the afternoon. Apparently Neville's Gran was feeling a bit under the weather, and since Neville hadn't felt like going alone, Mrs. Weasley offered to go with him. Ginny went along because, as she put it, "it gave her something to do". Of course Harry had noted that Neville seem rather pleased with the whole arrangement and Ginny certainly wasn't complaining either. Well they must be having a good time anyway because Mrs. Weasley flooed to say they were meeting up with Mr. Weasley at the Leaky Cauldron and were planning on having dinner with Fred and George at their shop in Diagon Alley. Thus leaving Harry, Ron and Hermione to take care of themselves for dinner. If Harry had had enough sense about him, he would have left for Headquarters before dinner, leaving Ron and Hermione long before the footsie stuff started.
"I would image they should be back anytime, she flooed over an hour ago. How long can dinner take?" Ron had interrupted Harry's thoughts.
"You should probably wait around until they return Harry. Just to make certain it is alright you leaving and everything." Hermione said rather grimly to Harry's surprise. There was no way he wanted to wait around to have to convince Mrs. Weasley why he really needed to go to Headquarters at this time in the evening.
"Listen, Ron, I'd really like to get going. Would you mind telling your mum where I'm off to?" Harry pleaded perhaps a little too earnestly. Harry figured if he got out before the Weasleys returned they couldn't put a stop to his plans.
"Well,,,Er—yeah, I suppose we could." Ron replied hesitantly.
"Great mate! You're the best. Well—I better get my stuff and get going."
Harry dashed up to his room or at least the room he was using while staying at the burrow. It had been the twin's old room, but one would never have been able to tell. It was now pretty much filled with all of Harry's stuff, both from his days at his Aunt and Uncle's house as well as all his school things. Of course, it's not like Harry had a lot of things, but he still managed to fill the room and make it look like he had been living there for years. In some ways it felt like he had been. His days on Privet Drive now seemed like ages ago and that was just fine with Harry. The quicker he forgot about that place and its occupants the better.
Harry stuffed his old school bag with some overnight gear and a change of clothes for the next day. He than headed back down to kitchen only to catch Ron and Hermione by surprise; as he reached the bottom of the steps he caught the two of them sitting awfully close, practically on top of one another. Of course when they spotted Harry they moved away from each other rather quickly and for the second time this evening both looked a bit flushed.
"Oh…well—that was awfully quick" Hermione said in a very raspy voice.
"Yeah—well, uh… I guess I best be going. Have fun—uh sorting socks tonight." Harry added as he stepped towards the fire in the kitchen hearth and grabbing a handful of Floo powder from the flower pot on the mantle. With his bag over his shoulder and his wand ready in his other hand (upon Mad-Eye Moody's insistence of "constant vigilance" they were all required to have their wands in hand as they traveled from one location to the next) Harry released the handful of powder and immediately felt that familiar sucking feeling taking hold of his entire body.
Because the connection between the two homes was not within the realm of the Ministry's Floo Network, Harry was not able to say his intended destination out loud, rather he just had to think about Headquarters and he was automatically sucked from one fire to the other.
Harry, over the last year or so, had become an expert at Floo powder travel; he was now able to exit the Floo in a full upright position with very little mess. Of course ever since he passed his apparition test last summer, apparating had been his preferred method of travel. But Hermione was right; it did make more sense to just Floo right into the kitchen at Headquarters than apparating onto a deserted street in the heart of London.