A/N – This is my first bit of writing for this fandom in about two years, written for a friend's birthday.
What is Luna on now?
It was time to see if we could get through this discussion.
"What happened?"
Ron shook his head hard and looked up. "Something happened?"
"Well, no, not really."
Ron's eyebrow raised itself.
Hermione settled herself down next to him. "I mean, how did we all get to this stage?"
Groans emanated from Ron. "I knew this was coming. Can't we just … leave this?"
"This is important, Ron." Hermione said sharply, a hint of frustration seeping into her voice. "After all, with Harry still hiding out with us, Voldemort still on the run from Harry, it just seems like some never-ending circle of events."
Ron stood, clearly trying to avoid this conversation again, and attempted to run out of the room. Hermione, however, was fully expecting this, and caught Ron's hand hard, pulling him back onto the couch, perhaps slightly harder than was necessary.
"Ron," she started firmly, "we need to talk about this."
"Why? The whole situation is simple: Harry was born, Harry wasn't killed when he was supposed to have been, Harry ran into Voldemort in various forms a few times, Harry saw Voldemort resurrected, Harry and Dumbledore went on an insane mission to kill some part of Voldemort, Dumbledore got killed, Harry decided to go track down the rest of Voldemorts parts, a word I intend to never use again in relation to Voldemort, and here we are today, a year after we should have had NEWTs and nice jobs, still living in crummy places and hunting Voldemort down as he hides from Harry and we hide from him."
Hermione smirked despite herself. She knew that despite all of Ron's efforts in the show he was putting on for her, things had indeed changed, for one at least now he would use Voldemorts name.
She decided to accept defeat this time around, saving the real debate for when Ron was finally read to have it.
Before he stormed off to bed, where she knew he wouldn't rest for some time, she got up and headed towards the door of the room.
"Where are you going?"
Hermione turned and smiled at him, "Up to bed for the night. You looked like you needed some time on your own."
She was shocked to hear his voice shaking as he started to stutter out a reply, then gave up trying to talk.
"Bejubbeters got your tongue?" a sympathetic voice inquired.
Despite having become used to the presence of the young woman over the past few years, Hermione couldn't help but roll her eyes.
Ron caught Hermione's look of exasperation, faked a cough and used the excuse to leave the room, nodding to Hermione and Luna as he ran upstairs.
Luna wandered over to the fireplace and prodded it with her wand, making flames spark high, before sitting where Ron had just vacated the couch. At a lack as to what else to do, Hermione returned to the couch and sat next to Luna.
The two young women sat there for a while, Luna humming some mild song or chant to herself that gradually started to get on Hermione's nerves.
"Do you have to sing that?" she snapped.
Luna stopped humming, and instead focused her attention on Hermione's tense face.
Hermione immediately felt guilty for snapping at Luna. "Luna, I…"
"It's all right," she replied airily. "There has been a cloud of Bejubbeters following Ron around for as long as I can remember; they seem to have recently taken a liking to you as well."
Hermione had long given up trying to understand everything that Luna talked about, however at times like this, her tiredness allowed her confusion at conversation topic to show through.
"Bejubbeters, the little bugs that follow around a person all their life until they have gained that knowledge or experience they so desire," Luna explained helpfully.
Hermione's brow creased, in spite of her logical mind, Luna's seemingly idiotic ideas and beliefs often seemed to be accurate.
"Everyone has had at least one cloud of Bejubbeters follow them in their life. It's only natural that something remains unclear for sometime before it is realized."
Luna seemed to think this was an adequate explanation, and felt no further need to enquire upon what she had interrupted earlier.
Hermione stood, shaking her head. "Well, goodnight, Luna."
"May the Bejubbeters be with you," was the cheerful reply.
Hermione wondered for a second if Harry had been showing Luna some of his few Muggle possessions, including Star Wars films, but didn't have time to wonder, for as she passed the front door on the way to the stairs, Harry himself came in.
His face was crinkled with exhaustion and dirt; Hermione had no idea where he'd been for the past few days, something that was unfortunately not all that unusual anymore. She started to open her mouth, but hastily shut it at the look on Harry's face.
"Hermione," he croaked, "take care. Please."
With that he stumbled off into the living room, the firelight only enhancing how dirty and tired he looked.
Once she was sure he was safely sitting down, Hermione turned her attention off of Harry's physical appearance and onto his comment. It was totally out of character for Harry to say something so obvious, whatever he'd been through in the past few days had clearly had an effect on him beyond most things in his life.
Accepting that she needed sleep right now more than a puzzle to figure out, she pushed Harry's comment to the back of her mind and headed to the tiny bathroom by the bottom of the stairs to start getting ready for bed.
After having a quick shower and brushing her teeth, Hermione headed up the creaky stairs as quietly as possible, and headed towards the second bedroom, as was customary. However, tonight something made her stop at the first door she walked up to. Turning the handle gently, she saw Ron already in bed, tossing and turning in his sleep.
Walking as softly as she could, she went over to him and knelt by his pillow. She reached out and stroked his hair as gently as she could, but even this gentle gesture woke him.
The moment Ron's eyes met her own, Harry's comment made sense.
Luna hummed to herself as she cleaned up the house the following morning, extinguishing any trace of their presence while the others slept. Harry had needed quite a strong cheering charm last night to get him relaxed to the point that he could fall asleep, but Luna could never begrudge him those times she stayed up with him. After Ginny's disappearance, Luna had decided to give up her attempt at a normal life and had joined Harry, Ron and Hermione on their travels and attempts to rid the world of Voldemort.
She often felt that Harry was glad for her presence, she thought, as she walked into the living room and saw that in her place, Harry was now hugging a pillow as he slept.
A brief noise made Luna look towards the stairs, but she immediately relaxed when she saw it was just Hermione walking down, Ron trailing behind her, disliking the early mornings as much as he ever had. As they came towards her, Luna noticed the distinct lack of Bejubbeters around them.
She smiled to herself, glanced around to notice Harry starting to wake up on the couch, and continued cleaning so no one would know they'd been there.