Days turn into a month, and Hermione still hasn't figured out why George's question set her ill at ease. Every encounter with the twins turns into an attempt to unravel the mystery, but his behaviour rapidly returned to normal, the matter of Ron firmly in the past. But the issue is soon eclipsed by her concern for Harry. Despite his attempted date several weeks prior, he quickly reverted to his usual patterns of reclusiveness and self-depreciation. Some days, all she can do is take care of Teddy and make sure Kreacher keeps Harry fed.
When she gets home from work one day to hear Harry announce that Luna is returning to Britain for a few days, however, that rut is swiftly broken. The young witch spends most of the day with her father before dropping in on them after they've returned from work and are settling in for the evening.
"What have you been doing with yourself?" Hermione asks on the first such evening as she stirs sugar into her mug of hot chocolate. "The last we heard, you were in Russia."
"Travelling," she replies simply. "Rolf heard reports of a Snorkack sighting north of Novosibirsk, so we left immediately to see if it was our time to see one as well."
Hermione has to force herself not to scrunch up her nose at Luna's phrasing, but Harry merely asks, "Was it?" as if it were completely normal.
"Unfortunately not. But that's alright," she adds when Harry reflexively starts to apologise, "it was disappointing, but everything will line up one day. Even if it doesn't, that just means I'm not one of the few who have been chosen to see one, and that's alright too."
"But what did you do over there while you waited for, er, things to align?" Hermione asks. "Surely you didn't just wait around for the one creature."
"Of course we didn't. We aren't looking for it; we're looking."
"For anything?" Harry prompts.
"Focusing on finding a single thing blinds you to seeing everything else that's out there in the world," she explains. "We have been compiling information about all different sorts of Russian magical creatures as we come across them. Almost everything that isn't native here is outside of British academia's current scope, so it's easy to make what they would call new discoveries. The Ministry has never bothered itself with things that don't directly affect them, after all." Her protuberant grey eyes suddenly fixate on Hermione, interest flickering in their depths. "Harry told me you've been working on your first bill."
"We write one another," Harry explains when the older witch shoots him a confused look.
"Yes," Hermione says, her curiosity placated. "I want to reform the archaic laws surrounding werewolf rights. The Wizengamot redacted the worst of them in the immediate aftermath of the war, but that's not enough. Workplaces can't technically refuse to hire someone on the basis of them being a lycanthrope, but it's still illegal to deny being a werewolf if someone asks you directly, and the Ministry isn't going to bother looking into it too closely if someone just so happens to always turn werewolf applicants away. Even if it ever did go to court, all they'd have to say is that Greyback went after them during the war and the Wizengamot would declare that a good enough reason to discriminate against all werewolves. It needs to change. The problem is creating legislation that changes things enough while still being acceptable to their outdated standards."
"People will always be cruel," Luna muses. "The trick is restricting their effect on the things that matter while making it so you genuinely don't care about the things that don't."
"Like stolen shoes?" Harry nods thoughtfully. "I think I could have done with that advice when we were at school."
"You seemed to manage fairly well without it."
"Only because I was constantly distracted by Voldemort."
Harry and Luna fall back into their relaxed friendship with ease – that's the benefit of keeping in contact, Hermione supposes – but Hermione finds it harder to adjust to having her around again. The toil of war created an unbreakable sense of comradeship between them, but it still takes a particular mindset to be able to decode and respond to her supposedly random statements. While she found that attitude in the year following the final battle, the time apart has set her back again, and she's no longer quite sure what to say around the odd witch.
Despite this, it's undeniable that her presence, however brief, revitalises their life. She is like a splash of colour amidst a sea of grey. Her unflappable outlook and fay-like features contrast with the dreary mood and dull décor like a full moon hanging, bright and dauntless, in the otherwise black night sky. Just sitting with her, with her unique and guileless way of seeing the world, lifts their attitudes more than anything else ever could have.
And, best of all, Teddy loves her. She has been away on her research trip for so long that he barely remembers her, but they more than make up for lost time. Although he is far past the stage of making it his life's mission to stick every foreign object he sees in his mouth in an attempt to work out what it is, her quirky earrings and necklaces fascinate him. Within hours of meeting her again, he is hanging off of her at every opportunity, walking around the house with a newfound grace in an attempt to emulate her. He looks more like a colt hobbling around on its spindly legs for the first time, but the intent – and the feeling behind it – is clear.