Hermione was, by now, used to a week or a month's worth of drama happening on a daily basis. She was relieved it was a Saturday, and they weren't due back at Hogwarts until the evening of the next day, so she crossed her fingers and permitted herself to relax. After all, being in danger together wasn't all there was to a friendship. There was also being happy and at peace together. Her fingers were cramped, so she returned to eating. Having just come back from a guest lecture at Mahoutokoro, Mr Lovegood had elected to have him and Luna, and now their guests, eat a typical Japanese breakfast of steamed rice, miso with tofu and mushrooms, a little grilled smelt and a small amount of tsukemono. It was well-prepared and delicious, and Japanese tea was an interesting change of pace. Harry and Hermione smiled at each other a few times.
After breakfast, while young Harry was studying ahead, aided by his older self and his portrait, the two Hermiones and the Lovegoods worked out how to get the portrait with Hermione's soul into Hermione's room, and hide it when they wanted to talk. In an emergency, the older Hermione could go into another portrait made by Mr Lovegood, but it wasn't pleasant. She felt compressed and short of breath, even though in reality she could stay in one indefinitely. She would have to sacrifice comfort for mobility, but it would be worth it to cycle between Hogwarts and the Rook. The home portrait would have to be disillusioned by Mr Lovegood since shrinking and expanding it would be unsafe.
That pleasant topic, however, led to one that was more disturbing. Hermione asked if blood rituals were really dark magic. Mrs Lovegood said that was her field of study, and asked if Hermione minded a lecture, which they all knew by now she would not mind.
"The reason that blood rituals are mostly banned has a lot of history. It's not like they alter your soul as truly dark spells do. But when it was more common, you had to make some difficult choices. The other Harry said he could only bring himself back because the required materials were so difficult to obtain. That was much truer in the past. If you wanted to do a blood ritual, you could take the easy path — animal sacrifices — but those rituals only did a certain set of things. If you wanted to go beyond that, if you took the "light" path, you would be fighting with other people. There are only so many good ritual spaces. Unicorns don't grow on trees, and winning their trust and aid is amazingly hard. And we don't even need to go into it with phoenixes, right? And most light path magicians would quibble over treating Veela as material sources, let alone sacrificial beasts. And so on. But if you take the really easy path — human sacrifice — it's really powerful, doesn't alter your soul as fast as most dark spells, and that's the way people mostly went. Hence the ban. And the light path hurts, too, it's mostly self-sacrificial magic, after all. It cost Harry both parents to stop Voldemort, and that's not surprising. So the Wizengamot and the other magical governments simply said, "no blood magic" and left it at that. Then any rituals allowed, or things like blood quills at Gringotts, were exceptions and no one talked about them. Family magic is pretty sacred, so families with a lot of blood rituals in their grimoires like the Potters were actually at a big advantage for a light-path family. But even that, you won't talk about. That's why Neville told Hermione it was illegal to discuss it. His grandmother, Augusta Longbottom, was exactly right about that. That's the law."
At that, the portrait of Harry chimed in, "Which we aren't breaking because this is the pureblood Lovegood home. Harry, you will want to come over here now, and would you mind relaying what you see to my brother? I was made quite recently, so I know exactly where his mind would be at right about now. You can talk out loud or in your mind, your choice, or mix it up."
Harry looked puzzled, but he got up and moved over next to the portrait. Mr Lovegood conjured him a chair, and he sat down, not taking his eyes off the painting.
"Okay, first things first. When we did the portrait ritual for me — blood magic, right? — Older Harry felt something leave him, right?"
"He says yes, and he thought it was me at the time."
"Which it wasn't. And it wasn't, thank goodness, our soul, either. But in order to be an individual, with independent thought, I needed a soul, too. So, what do you think, young Harry? Did your older self tell you about Horcruxes?"
Harry went pale. "You split our soul?" He got up out of the chair but stopped at a gesture from his painted older double, which was laughing.
"No, not at all," the other Harry said, still laughing. "Let me introduce you to someone."
With that, he pulled aside a curtain, and Harry shrank back and sat down. Shivering and crying on the floor was a ... thing. It looked like a baby homunculus, and Hermione put her hand over her mouth in horror. "Describe it to your older self, Harry," she heard.
Harry did so, then reported, "He says it's Voldemort's Horcrux! When you did the painting ritual, you got rid of it?"
Mr Lovegood nodded, as did Portrait Harry.
"And that, you can tell my brother, is why I have a soul in this canvas. I also have ... this." With that, he pulled on dragon-hide gloves that had been lying on a table next to him, then pulled a large fang out of a pocket in his robes. "Mr Lovegood did an important goblin an important favour once, and he got this as a reward. A true wizard at portraits can put a single magical artefact into one. It's a sacrifice, but it's not blood magic per se. This thing looks vulnerable, but it's actually as tricky to destroy as the other Horcruxes."
"But ... when you do that, won't you die?" Harry wondered. Hermione nodded, as she'd had the same thought.
"Because I'm using his soul-piece to exist?" the portrait asked. "No, because we will wait until ... well, you all know what."
"He says he realises he's going into the portrait at some point, so you don't have to dodge the issue," Harry said.
"Well, that does make things easier," the portrait said. "We'll merge, and I don't think I'll even be an afterimage. And just so you know, I can't wait. Missing my soul has been painful and lonely, although being a portrait is still a unique experience and an adventure. Tell my brother that Hermione and I tried kissing, and while it's not quite like being out there, it's also not bad."
"He's jealous," Harry said. "And not in a good-humoured way."
"Tell him he won't leave younger Harry until both of them have learned what they're supposed to," Portrait Hermione said. "And you can also tell him Pandora and I tried kissing, too. Portraits with souls get much more out of it."
"That's my girl," Mr Lovegood said.
"It's all for science!" Mrs Lovegood said, laughing. "Hermione and Harry, this is a very good example of what I was talking about. It's really tempting to have Luna create a portrait of Xeno in a few years, but the normal ones don't activate until after death, right? So the best I could do is go into his portrait and hold my unmoving husband, which isn't worth the trouble. We could do a blood ritual, but what would we use for a soul? One of the Horcruxes? That would make us dependent on not destroying them. And splitting a soul, even with a ritual that doesn't involve murder, is really dark magic. Even with the first one, Voldemort became something that's really far from human."
"Mama, are you ... are you alive now?" Luna asked, timidly.
"In a way, Luna-moon, but only because Hermione is spending so much time with me. I will make a habit of being with one or the other of them while they're around, and whenever they can visit, okay?"
It was, Hermione thought, if Luna's expression was any indication. It wasn't like having her mother back, but it seemed it was much closer than before.
Then a thought occurred to her. "Wait, why did I start kissing women, again?"
Her portrait laughed. "You loosened up enough to experiment after all the tosh people threw at you. You really had no patience with intolerance after a while. And Harry didn't mind, either. Also, for my birthday not long before he came back, and after a few drinks, I got Harry to kiss a guy at a pub we were at. Not like he was enjoying it, but that didn't make it any less hot. He's a wonderful boyfriend. For me."
Young Harry looked worse than she felt, so she took his hand, and he relaxed.