A, Out of the Blue, Task
Exhaust cleaved through splinters in the door. Luna awoke. Her dream had been one of those optimistic dreams that she typically had. But this wasn't a dream; this was reality.
Luna coughed, her throat pinching with blaze. Wobbling out of bed, Luna concealed her lips, pressing them into her shirt as she tried to find her way through the cloud maze to her door.
She found it. Jostling the door ajar, Luna was received with an elevated wall of fog.
"Mama!" she cried, smoke wrapping its binds around the inner lining of her throat. "Mama where are you?!"
Luna was replied by only silence and a subdued, gentle fizz. Luna grasped her way all through the house. What was once a gracious, comfy home was something that Luna never recognized before.
Walls were painted with a fresh coat of residue and diminutive flames blinked at her through the fog barrier.
"Luna!" Mother called. "Luna go away, don't come any closer! It's hazardous! Don't come! Luna leave!"
"Mama!" Luna made out a dark silhouette headed for her. Luna giggled with satisfaction as she sprinted to her mother.
"Mama!"
"Luna, no! Leave!! Luna don't come any closer! Luna, nooooo!!!!"
An imperceptible, but brutal force drove Luna into the air. Luna glided through the opaque air and landed into a desk, a splinter prodding its way up Luna's elbow, but she didn't care.
"MAMA!!!!" the little girl screamed, running into the haze, not caring for whatever laid ahead of her. She just needed her mom.
"Mama!" The youngster clutched her mother's hand. It was icy cold. Luna stared into her mother's eyes. The inert, lifeless eyes stared back.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!"
Luna tore her eyes open, her lungs full of anxiety and fear. Tears throbbed as they slithered downwards.
"Luna, what's wrong, are you alright?" A broad-shouldered, muscular man swept into the doorway, his bangs hovering between a set of emerald-green eyes. A pair of new glasses relaxed on his narrow nose while a faded, lightning-shaped scar hide behind his tangle of black hair.
Luna continued to bawl, her tears streaming into her hands.
"I see her every night." Luna sniveled. "Her eyes, frozen in time, never to watch again. Her body, reclining on the cindered floor, never to embrace again. It's horrible Harry. I can't stand it!"
Harry, clad in only a towel, drifted towards his spouse. Sympathy sparked in his eyes, as his arms clung to Luna affectionately.
Harry knew precisely what Luna was talking about. Her mother. It had been seventeen years since the catastrophic accident that took Clarissa Lovegood's life. Seventeen years since Luna's life plummeted into a world of brutality and rage, agony and torment. It had been their friend, Hermione Granger who had halted the malice in Luna's life. Yes, if it hadn't been for Hermione, Luna and Harry's life together as husband and wife would have been zilch.
Harry clasped his wife's hand and kneaded her skin with his thumb. Harry knew exactly how it felt to have terrifying dreams occur while one was sleeping. When Harry had been younger, he had indeed had menacing nightmares himself. When his godfather had perished at the end of his fifth year at school, it had been his face that Harry saw every night for months afterwards.
Minutes of tranquility wafted by, sniffles interrupting every one or two moments.
"Are you feeling better?" Harry asked softly.
Luna wiped the lingering tears away as she grinned clumsily at her husband.
"I'm sorry," she murmured, relaxing her head on Harry's exposed shoulder. "I shouldn't have cried like that. I mean, they have been coming repeatedly, this is the second time this week."
"Don't blame yourself." Harry cradled Luna with his arm. "They will go away, they always do. Take it from someone who knows."
"What do you mean, someone who knows?" Luna's eyes extended, as she comprehended what Harry meant. "Oh Harry –"
Harry held up his hand, banishing whatever she was going to utter out the window.
"That's enough. I got enough of that, 'Oh Harry' compassion back in Hogwarts. I really don't need it anymore. Now, before you so sorrowfully barged in, I was going to start off my day with a good, uplifting shower. Want to join your striking, sexy, considerate husband?"
Luna got up, postponing for a minute to clutch her inflated stomach before rising to her full height.
"I think I am going to let my striking, sexy, considerate husband take a good, uplifting shower by himself while I make him some lip-smacking, delectable pancakes." Luna teased
Harry looked offended, but changed his composure faster than she could say "Lovegood".
"It's a deal." He agreed, leaning in for a sought after kiss.
Luna was about to give Harry that wanted kiss, but something else had other plans.
"Looks like our little junior objects to our romantic affairs." Luna laughed, her hand stroking her belly. "Seeing as she kicked again."
Harry lifted his eyebrows.
"She?" he asked. "Who said anything about my first child being a 'she', when I know he is going to be my little boy!"
"And may I inquire how you know that Little Junior is going to be a 'he'?"
Harry kissed Luna gingerly.
"I have my ways." He said, retreating to the doorway. "Now if you excuse me, I have a shower requesting my presence."
Luna laughed. Harry wasn't the most handsome man on Earth, but she loved him for who he was.
Sometime later, after clothing herself with a fine, white blouse and green skirt ornamented with prints of blue blossoms, Luna parked herself into a chair and was barely taking her first bite of a pancake when a head materialized in the fire.
"Dean!" she cried, identifying one of Harry's old schoolmates. "What are you doing here?"
Dean glanced up at Luna.
"Luna!" he exclaimed, "Glad to see you healthy and good. How much longer till your lil' turkey's ready to come out of the oven?"
Luna felt somewhat affronted with Dean's question, but did not say anything about it.
"Oh I suppose not much longer," Luna answered, a minor tone of bitterness swallowed into her voice. "I'm almost at the end of my third trimester."
Dean bobbed his head up and down.
"Good, good." He said.
"How's Charlotte?" she asked, referring to Dean's wife.
"Ah....she's ok." Dean looked down into the flames. Luna assumed he was looking at his feet. "She has a nasty virus right now. I have to keep the kids away from her, but...Oy Harry!"
Harry treaded over, his hair, pebbled with dewdrops of water.
"What's up Dean?" Harry asked.
"Now I hate to do this to you Harry, especially with that little roast in the stove –"
"Excuse me?"
"Sorry, I always say that. Especially with her almost ready to deliver and all, ("Much better" Harry said) but we need you to go on a......well.....an assignment for us."
Harry's eyes contracted. Plopping into the nearest chair, Harry continued to chat with Dean.
"What kind of assignment?" Harry asked warily.
Dean stared at Harry. Luna was quick to notice this as she said, "I think I will wait in the kitchen."
Luna listened to the sound of two, adult men discussing, but could not perceive the words. Luna was so pressed on trying to make out what the men were saying that by the time she turned her attention to the stove, it was too late.
"Shit." Luna cried as she peeled the scorched pancake off the pan.
"Luna?"
Luna dropped the overcooked batter onto the floor. Harry's face was creased with bleakness, worry overflowing in his eyes, and his shoulders drooped with a newborn fatigue. Luna instantaneously alerted that something was wrong.
"Are you ok Harry?" she asked softly.
Harry sighed. He did not want to talk about this, especially to his pregnant wife that was supposedly due anytime now.
Harry clutched Luna's shoulders with a rigidity that Luna had never felt from Harry before. Now she didn't think, she KNEW that something was wrong.
"Harry what is wrong?" she cried.
Harry looked at her, apprehension pushing into his face.
"I need to go away." He said quietly.
"Go away, away where? Why?" Luna noticed that her voice was acting quite shrilly, but she didn't care. Her attention was 100% on Harry.
"You know Dean works at the Auror office right?" Harry asked. After Luna nodded, he continued, "They need someone to go down to Romania. They got an anonymous tip that several deatheaters are planning something and they need someone to go down and stop them."
"And I take it you are going to go?"
"Yes."
"All by yourself?!"
Harry shook his head. "No. When I get down there, I will be meeting some Romanian Aurors who will help me. At least that's what Dean said."
Luna protested against this.
"Harry you can't. You are on vacation, you can't leave now! And what about our baby, Harry, what about our first child?"
Harry delicately wrapped Luna into his arms. Tears were staining her face, but Luna didn't care if the whole world saw. All she wanted was Harry to be with her.
"I have to." Harry spooned Luna's face with his hand. "Ron is already on a assignment, Seamus is on his honeymoon with Parvati, and Frances is already on a case with Ferris Beacon. They have nobody else. This is an emergency and I must go!"
Luna wept. She didn't want him to leave, he couldn't! But an insignificant voice at the back of her brain told her that Harry was right.
"Alright." Luna snuffled.
Harry kissed Luna.
"Everything will be ok," he said gently. "You will see. I will be there and back before our baby is born. Ok?"
Luna only drooped her head. Taking it as a sign of yes, Harry left her to pack his things for the journey ahead.
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