A Painful Unraveling

Harry and Luna arrived at the Ministry via the visitors entrance two days later at precisely noon. Hermione met them in the lobby. The lobby had changed over the decades. They had not really looked at it the first time they were there.

It still had the rows of entrance fireplaces on the one wing. Doors and the elevators filled the other wing. Hundreds of people were moving about in all directions. Paper airplane messages were filling the air overhead. A more friendly statue had replaced the one from the dark years with magical folks standing on top of muggles that Harry remembered. That statue was destroyed at the end of the Second Wizarding War. The nicest change of all was the picture of Hermione, which was much smaller, friendlier and less imposing than the one of Fudge he remembered.

"Hi, Hermione" said Harry with a forced smile. The past two days had been one long session of tumultuous thoughts,

"Hello, Harry, Luna, replied Hermione, her face clearly stressed. It was apparent this thing had also been wearing on her mind.

"You look terrible," said Luna, addressing the obvious. "Have we come at a bad time?"

"No, yes, uh no," stuttered Hermione. "You need to be here and we need to take care of this dream situation.

They followed her to the elevators and up to her office. Once inside, Harry and Luna took seats that had been placed in front of her desk in anticipation of their meeting. Hermione sat down on the front of her desk, not wanting to place it between them.

Some of the pictures of the former ministers lining the walls were watching them. Others were sleeping or oblivious to them. Crookshanks III was curled up on a nearby shelf.

Several moments passed. None of them knew how to begin. Finally, Hermione said in a very serious tone, "I have been doing a lot of reading and thinking over the past couple of days. This is far more complicated than I could ever have imagined. No matter what happens, you are going to face some tough decisions."

"Don't worry," said Luna in a very Lunalike fashion. "We aren't going to let you be killed. Right, Harry."

"Uh...yeah...right," sputtered Harry, looking at Luna like he wanted to say 'Really'.

"Thanks, Luna," replied Hermione. "I wish that was the toughest decision you are going to have to make."

"Harry and Luna looked at each other, then back to Hermione. What did Hermione know? The gravity of the situation suddenly started to bear down on them uncomfortably.

Hermione drew a deep breath and started to talk. Harry and Luna leaned forward, not wanting to miss a single syllable. "I feel quite confident that my previous theory was correct. You have traveled along the main timeline in this dream, I can't think of a better name for it, creating a litany of loose threads. How the Room of Requirement managed to create this situation is beyond me. The magic that created the room must be incredible. I cannot imagine the level of magical knowledge used by its creators. It could be alien, for all I know. But enough of that."

Harry and Luna continued to look at her. Neither of them knew what to say or what might be coming.

"Do you remember when you finished telling me about Jamaica and I asked you a couple of times if anything else happened there?" asked Hermione.

They both shook their head in the affirmative. Harry managed a weak, tentative 'yes'.

"I did that because I had already finished reading Jamaica before...well...before Luna read about me being killed."

"Okay," said Harry, knowing this statement was leading to something important. "What do you know?"

Luna looked on, also knowing something big was coming. "Yes. What is it?" she asked. "What happened?"

You went to a concert and smoked a lot of marijuana. And then...well...then you went back to Strawberry Hill and before you went to sleep you had sex."

Both Harry and Luna's jaws dropped.

"We did?" said Harry, looking at Luna. Embarrassment, maybe even shame tinted both of their faces as they looked at each other, then back at Hermione.

"There is much more," said Hermione, trying to treat things professionally. "A lot more."

Harry and Luna both gulped. They knew that Hermione had her hands on a giant can full of worms and was waiting to see if they were ready for her to open it the rest of the way.

"Do you want me to continue?" she asked.

Harry drew a long breath and looked at Luna. "Do we?" he asked her.

"I think so," she said in a quiet voice. "I think we need to know the rest if we are ever going to solve this dream."

"Okay," said Harry, visibly trembling. "Go on, Hermione."

Hermione gave a long exhale and started. "You saw the murder in Jamaica. Then you went to Sweden and a whole lot of other places. This thing doesn't tell you how long you are gone in our time. I am thinking this stretch took a year or two. Anyway, from my readings, you were getting better at stopping the murderer. Your instances of getting the green TIE mark instead of the red FAIL kept getting more frequent.

"Did we have more sex?" asked Luna as Harry did a double take.

Hermione shook her head a bit. "Yes. Quite a bit actually," she said, trying to hide a smirk. "I was just getting to that."

Embarrassment definitely covered Harry and Luna at the revelation. They looked back at Hermione with sheepish expressions.

"You eventually landed in Spain back in 1502, I believe. You were in a tavern having a meal. That's when Luna tells you she is pregnant."

Harry and Luna's jaws hit the floor. Their eyes nearly exploded out of their heads. They both were making incoherent noises trying to become words.

Hermione continued on while they tried to gather themselves. " You actually handled it quite well. You sat and talked about it. You let Luna decide what to do, which she said was have the baby. Both of you realized hopping from place to place and century to century was no way to raise a child. You made a decision to pick a place and settle down to a normal life and avoid interacting with the murderer."

"Did we do that?" asked Harry.

"Yes. You eventually decided to live in Vancouver, Canada. You got a nice place and moved in. Your money pouches in the dream were much more powerful than the ones I made back when we were on the run hunting horcruxes. You were essentially billionaires."

"Vancouver sounds nice," said Luna.

"Very nice, you loved it there. On the day your first child was born you got married in the hospital. It is actually a comical scene. You lived in Vancouver for many years. You had three children named Herman, Rhonda and Ginille. Harry started a business selling something called a Corny Dog. Luna, you worked in a place very similar to the place in New York."

Wow, that sounds nice," said Harry.

"Why aren't we still there?" asked Luna.

"The murderer," said Hermione. "He appeared by Harry's food stand one evening. It was just a few days before Herman's Leaving Day to Ilvermony. Harry was closing up later than usual. A woman walked by. He told her to be careful walking alone this late. A moment later a man jumped out and grabbed her several stands down. Harry saved her, but that meant you would be moving. You gathered the family and huddled in your living room."

"Where did we go? I hope it was a nice place," said Luna.

"You ended up in Buenos Aires, Argentina," came the reply. You all like it there. Only Herman was upset at first. He was not going to go to Ilvermony. He settled down when he got a letter accepting him to Castelobruxo. As you settled into Buenos Aires, he left for wizarding school there."

"Did our life go well, there?" asked Harry.

"It went well for quite some time. Herman went to school. Harry, you opened a business selling pizza mixed with your coney sauce. They were very popular. Luna, you went to work in a shop full of occult and magical stuff. The girls were in private muggle schools."

"And then?" said Harry. "There always seems to be an 'and then'.

Herman was home on break after Year Three. The girls were also on summer break. You were all preparing for Christmas. Christmas happens in the summer during school break in the Southern Hemisphere," noted Hermione. Rhonda's birthday was coming and she was all anxious about whether or not she would be getting her Castelobruxo Letter. The two of you were going to a glitzy performance of Handel's Messiah at the Teatro Colón opera house downtown while Herman watched the girls…"

"...My, that sounds nice," broke in Luna, not feeling the impending shoe drop that Harry was starting to sense.

"...You had a great time at the performance. It says you looked like rock stars in your fancy clothes. While you were leaving after the performance Harry realized he lost his cellphone. You were becoming so muggly with your cellphones and everything," said Hermione with a smirk. "He ran back to look for it and you got in your car. He found his cellphone and was returning. It was then he saw a man attacking a lady. He thought to run away, not wanting another Vancouver. Then, he realized the lady was you, Luna."

Once again, Harry and Luna's jaws dropped. They looked at each other and clasped their hands together. Both of them were starting to tremble.

"Did I get killed?" asked Luna in a shaky voice.

"Just hang on," said Hermione. "Harry charged over and hit the man. Together, you fought him off and he jumped in his van to escape. You ran back to your car and Harry gave chase. The van had a broken tail light, so it was easy to follow. You discovered his house and went to the police. They took the information and sent you home. By the time you got back and were getting settled into being safe at home the news came on with a live report about a police raid and capture of a suspected serial killer."

Harry and Luna were starting to gain their composure with the revelation Luna was okay. It was bolstered by the report of the capture of the killer.

"So, the two of you were still tense, " said Hermione, "You made love, I think to defuse things. It was actually kind of a cute scene."

"Hermione!" exclaimed Luna. "That's naughty."

Harry just looked away and tried not to snicker.

"I don't think you remembered what this all meant. After...uh...you know...you went to sleep. The story had a big, blue WIN stamped on it. It is the last book. I think that is when you returned to the present."

WOW!" blurted Harry. "That is a lot to think about."

"That is quite amazing," said Luna.

"Yes," said Hermione. "It is a lot to think about."

"What can we do?" asked Harry, getting up and starting to walk in circles. All of the portraits were focusing their eyes on him. He wished he was in the headmaster's office at Hogwarts. He could ask Dumbledore for advice. The only ministers he knew were Kingsley, but only a little bit, and Fudge and Phineas Nigellus Black, neither of whom he trusted."

"This feels like this is a puzzle with no correct answer," said Luna.

"I think you are right, Luna. There is no correct answer, only your answer," said Hermione, looking at both of them.

"How do we choose? How do we know what to do?" said Harry, still pacing.

"I think you need to look at the choices," said Hermione.

"What choices? What are the choices," said Harry.

"We have to pick which life we want to live." said Luna.

"I think it is more than that," said Hermione as she stood up. "Can you go on with your life here knowing about your life there? How will it affect your marriages knowing about your other marriage and family? Could you bear to give up your life here and go back to your life there? Would you know about your life here if you could reconnect a thread and go back there?"

That is a mountain of things to think about. I don't think I am ready to make that decision," said Harry, looking at Luna.

"Yes, we need to think about this some more."

"Okay," said Hermione. "Tell me when you have made up your minds. We will go forward from there."