Luna was right about how busy Harry would find himself. After waking up he was inundated with plans that needed to get done over the break. The Wizengamot was working diligently to ensure the Quidditch World Cup ran smoothly this year since they were hosting it. Sirius had multiple appointments to ensure he was physically and mentally capable of taking up his seat on the governing body. There were travel brochures for various places in magical and muggle France to visit since Harry had promised Luna they would vacation there over the break.
As a result Harry found that he rarely had a quiet moment especially when Remus or Sirius would try and pull a prank or two to help him unwind. His life had gotten so busy that the date of the party Luna had planned was suddenly upon them and he was barely ready for it.
"It's going to be a fine party Harry," Luna said as she looked over her husband's suit for the Birthmas Bachelorwedding party that she had sent out invitations for.
Harry sighed as he looked in a mirror at his unruly hair. "I'm just worried about how things are going to go. We have so many different people here and it doesn't help that Sirius keeps bragging about the amount of strippers he hired for the party." The older man had been making a point to inflate the number higher every time it got brought up. Which began to make Harry think he might not be joking about that.
"It's okay Harry the strippers are really for himself and they are nice witches who are doing it to pay for college," Luna smiled and headed out of their bedroom to wait for the guests to arrive.
Harry blinked in confusion at his wife's words. "Wait, Luna… there aren't actually any strippers here? That was just you pranking me… Luna? Luna!" Harry said while hurrying out of the room to catch up to the blonde girl.
Harry was very relieved to finally have a chance to see his friends again after all the busy work he put in the last few weeks and he took sadistic joy in seeing Lucius Malfoy cringe at Mr. and Mrs. Granger's fascination with a magical home. That was after he'd had a slight confrontation with Lucius when the Malfoys arrived earlier.
"I think there must have been a mixup," Harry said through a fake smile as he looked at Draco and Lucius who stepped through the floo. "I don't recall sending an invitation to you."
Lucius gave a fake smile right back at Harry and shook his hand. "Believe me boy, I wouldn't be here if Narcissa hadn't insisted on it. She received the invitation from your wife."
"Then I guess we just have to accept it don't we," Harry groaned as Luna was already speaking with Lady Malfoy.
"Yes… I guess we do," Lucius said curtly while leading Draco over to a corner away from other people where they would wait for Narcissa to tell them it was time to leave.
"I can't believe my cousin is here," Sirius whispered to Harry after Narcissa gave him a light hug and went over to conversate with others. "You know…" he said slyly. "She used to have a thing for your dad back in school."
"I will pay you to not talk about that," Harry replied while he kept the bile in his throat down.
Sirius held back a snicker. "You can't afford my silence, so your father was a few years younger than her. She always did have a thing for younger men."
Harry looked like he wanted to scream while Sirius went on teasing him as more guests arrived.
Later on as the party was in full swing Remus tapped Harry on the shoulder. "Sirius got you a present, wanted to give it to you away from everyone else," the werewolf whispered into Harry's ear.
With a nod Harry followed his professor deeper into the home where he was led to a room. Harry stepped in and the door shut behind him and a light came on. "Happy birthday… to you," a sultry voice said.
"I will have you fixed Sirius!" Harry roared when he saw a very cute pink haired girl begin to remove her clothing while dancing seductively, her outerwear falling to the floor revealing her bra and panties underneath. "He put you up to this?" Harry growled at Tonks who looked petrified at Harry's unexpected rage.
"He said it'd be funny." Tonks blurted out a reply when Harry turned and kicked the door open to reveal Sirius and Remus holding each other up laughing.
Harry tackled his godfather as the two tumbled down the stairs. "A pink haired stripper really?!" Harry exclaimed as the party goers noticed the tussle between the two lords and decided that they shouldn't get involved but a few of them did take pictures.
"Pink hair?" Andromeda said with barely restrained anger while she loomed over the two fighting boys. "Sirius, did you trick my daughter into stripping for Lord Potter?"
"Harry please let me go, I need to run away now," Sirius pleaded as he tried to pull away from his godson's grip on his robes.
Deciding that the woman's mother would be able to do far more damage to Sirius than he would, he graciously allowed Sirius a chance to escape with the enraged woman hot on his heels.
After that embarrassing ordeal, the party began to wind down and at the end of the day Harry was sitting on the couch exhausted while Luna read another book using him as a pillow. He was absentmindedly running his fingers through her hair while Dobby was in the kitchen cooking up a snack for the occupants of Grimmauld Place before they went to bed.
"Harry I think I want to try for a little more tonight," Luna commented to her husband who was suddenly very alert. Tilting her head up to see how he reacted.
"Wha-what?" Harry stammered out as he met his wife's gaze. "Are we… you know?" waving his hands around unsure of what to do with them.
Luna blushed and shook her head at Harry's question. "I don't think we're there yet but, I think if we touched each other that would be alright."
"If you feel like you're ready for that then, of course Luna," Harry gulped nervously and nodded.
"I really wish they wouldn't forget when they aren't alone in a room," Remus groaned as he and Sirius had been quietly playing a game of wizards chess in the corner until Luna's voice broke the silence, but by that point it was already too late to leave the room.
"The price we pay old chum," Sirius shrugged. James and Lily had acted just like that when they finally got together, completely engrossed in the other presence that they would forget where they were and have very intimate conversations in public.
That night Harry and Luna explored more of each other's bodies but the intimates remained on because neither was ready to take that plunge.
"I never considered a temperate climate to look for exploding snabberwitches," Luna gasped when she saw the crystal clear waters of the French Riviera. The young blonde witch scampered down to the cool waters and let out a squeal of delight when a small wave coasted up the berm and ran over her feet.
Harry, Remus and Sirius meanwhile were following behind her while carrying the luggage out from the apparition poin. "Thanks for helping me get this set up," Harry said to his godfather and Remus. The two older wizards had been incredibly helpful as Harry didn't know the first thing about getting to another country legally, but with their help he had gotten passports for both Luna and himself and they had found a lovely wizarding hotel that would be close enough to both the magical and muggle markets so they all could experience everything the country had to offer.
"It's salt water!" Luna cried out to the group after pulling her head back out of the water. "That explains why they explode."
"But not why they snabber,." Sirius chuckled to the menfolk, earning himself an elbow to the ribs from Harry.
"Come on, you know not all of the creatures are imaginary," Harry rolled his eyes. In the last year quite a number of creatures that were featured in The Quibbler had been discovered and documented. But not all of them, which lead to some people still considering The Quibbler nothing more than a rag that had gotten lucky by The-Boy-Who-Lived finding something that shouldn't have existed.
Sirius rubbed his side. "Right right, I know that. But you have to admit some of them are pretty out there even if they are real. Like the wolpertinger." That had been a shock when the magical community had found out that some of these so called imaginary creatures had been discovered by the muggles, but that since they looked so outlandish that the muggles had dismissed them as creations of a demented taxidermist.
Harry let the conversation end there as he set down the cooler and towels far enough away that the water wouldn't come up to it but also not too far of a walk from the shore.
Luna ran back towards them kicking sand everywhere as she latched onto Harry's arm and started to pull him towards the water. "Come on Harry," laughing as Harry faked reluctance and let her bring him into the surf, the cool water splashing everywhere.
"You need to take off your shirt or else you're going to get a rash." Remus shouted when he saw Harry splashing around with his wife. He should at least attempt to be the responsible one since Sirius was already digging in the sand like a loon.
Not wanting to get a rash Harry pulled off his top and let his bare chest get some sunlight, he didn't even consider that Remus and Sirius hadn't seen the scars he had, because when he was sleeping with Luna she would see him when he changed. Harry hadn't told her everything but he was opening up about his past with her and he wasn't ashamed of how he looked after Luna assured him that all the marks on him didn't make him ugly.
But the two adults hadn't and even at this distance they could see the results of Harry's oh so loving upbringing. "Moony I think I'm going to end up back in Azkaban if I ever meet the Dursleys again."
"Right there with you Padfoot," Remus nodded in agreement because this was likely only the tip of the iceberg as to what Harry lived with growing up.
After a few minutes of splashing around the smiling couple came over to the others who did a very good job of making it not look like they were staring at Harry's scars. "So what do you say we cook up some hotdogs?" Remus offered as he lit the grill.
Luna let out a horrified gasp. "Professor, how could you eat animals like that?! That's so cruel." Tucking into Harry's shoulder and shuddering when she saw the packaged meat the werewolf pulled out.
"What?" Remus tilted his head and looked to Harry for an explanation.
It didn't take long for Harry to deduce the reason for Luna's fear. "No no, Luna, sweetie. They aren't made from dogs, that's just what some people call them. They're made from pork, chicken and beef." Whispering into his wife's ear. "I promise you they are not made from actual dogs."
Little things like that reminded Harry that his wife had led a very different childhood to his own and he wanted to make sure that she got to experience everything the world had to offer her. It brought him joy to see how excited she was to see the muggle side of Paris and everything it had to offer.
In turn she took him around the magical side of the City of Lights. Seeing what other magical cultures had to offer made Harry decide that he wanted to live outside Britain, especially because unless the wind picked up and revealed his scar, he was just another face in the crowd and even the few times that happened no one made a big deal about his presence.
Of course like all good things, they must come to an end and Harry remembered that his life was always a hectic nightmare when the Quidditch World Cup ended.