Disclaimer: I still don't own Harry Potter. See the bottom for an author's mission statement, if you're interested in that sort of thing.
March 11th, 1997 Great Hall of Hogwarts
Parvati Patil was soooooo incredibly bored. Her first year of NEWT studies was going alright she supposed, even if her sister did occasionally nag at her to spend more time working. But she really felt like she could use a dash of fun or excitement or something to get through another dreary grey day. The constantly drizzly weather of the last week clearly hadn't helped her mood any.
The year before had been a lot more exciting for a number of reasons. There had been the club where Harry had taught them how to defend themselves, and who wouldn't have been shocked to think that she of all people would have ended up in a battle against Death Eaters before she turned sixteen?
Lavender had gushed for months about how brave she must have felt- but it had been terror more than anything that day running through the ministry.
And Harry of course. Her huge, terrible, unrequited feelings hadn't done much fading over the last couple of months since he had left Hogwarts, off on a honeymoon with Pansy. She didn't blame him for wanting to get away from things either. A lot of people were just out of their minds about the Man Who Won, now replacing his earlier title of the Boy Who Lived.
Parvati knew that he didn't care for either of them. A part of her was a bit worried that he might not come back to England at all. Could she really blame him?
But the war was over now. Things were quiet- probably the biggest news recently around Hogwarts had been about her bestie's on again off again relationship with Ron. After a nasty break up post Christmas, they had gotten back together just in time for Valentine's Day. Trying to be happy for her, Parvati had helped Lavender pick the perfect outfit for their date in Hogsmeade. Judging by the smile on her face that evening, it had gone well, and there hadn't been any arguing between the two of them ever since.
Speaking of recent dates, Dean had invited her to Hogsmeade as well, but he had just been dumped by Ginny Weasley and Parvati did not want to get into any drama like that nor be an obvious rebound girl. While Dean was fairly cute, he wasn't really her type- or at least that's what she told herself in order to ignore the specifically green-eyed sort of guy that she was into.
Would things be any better if she saw him that summer? At this rate, maybe not.
She sighed as she absent mindedly pushed the carrots and peas around on her plate. At least she didn't have any assignments due the next day; she could spend that evening goofing off with Lavender, assuming she wasn't too busy occupied with Ron in some broom closet or something.
Her malaise was broken as a gorgeous snowy owl descended towards the Ravenclaw table and landed in front of Luna Lovegood. Parvati had recognized that she was obviously the other person most affected by the lack of Harry and Pansy that year. From what she could tell, Luna was doing a better job at not letting it get her down now that her best friends were gone though. The two of them spoke on occasion, and while she thought the odd blonde girl was nice, they didn't have a lot in common.
If she had looked around the room, especially at the faces of some of the girls and the staff table, Parvati would have realized that a lot of people were interested in what the letter Hedwig brought would have to say.
For example, a few seats down from her, Hermione Granger was particularly upset as she thought of the best friend she had lost... and wondering at just what had happened to the sweet boy who had become a cold blooded killer.
Luna read on completely unconcerned, eventually tucking the parchment away so she could finish her dessert.
However, when she stood up and walked to the staff table, the room got very quiet, all eyes watching the blonde girl.
"Professor Flitwick?"
"Yes, miss Lovegood?"
"As my head of house, I thought it would be wise to inform you that I am going to be kidnapped in a few days."
"Excuse me?" he squeaked out in disbelief.
"Friday is my birthday, and Pansy firmly believes that I should spend it with my best friends. She said that Harry agrees and that he will be kidnapping me for the day," Luna added with a smile. "I thought it would only be polite to inform you so that no one would get in a tizzy about a missing student."
The headmistress decided to jump in at that point. "Miss Lovegood, I don't believe that is exactly how a kidnapping works. As well, I don't believe that allowing students to depart for the day is prudent."
Luna cocked her head to the side and stared at McGonagall as if she were trying to puzzle out a different language. "You do realize this is Harry Potter we're talking about, right professor? The slayer of Voldemort? The Man Who Won this second war practically on his own and all that? I don't know that I could stop him from kidnapping me, even if I wanted to. Which I don't, for the record."
There were a few amused chuckles from Slughorn, Watts, and Babbling, some of the teachers who had liked Harry the most. Flitwick decided to try to play the mediator. "As your head of house, thank you for informing me of this, miss Lovegood. If you are going to miss a day of classes, please speak with your professors about any assignments you will need to complete. And tell Harry and Pansy hello for me as well."
"Will do, professor," Luna said with a grin before turning and skipping down the aisle.
Parvati stood up and ran after her as she left the Great Hall.
It only took her a moment to catch up with the blonde witch who was opening a nearby door. "I thought you would want to ask me about the letter," Luna said, closing the door behind Parvati and using her wand to insure their privacy.
"How are they? What are they doing?"
"Do you really want to know about both of them, or only Harry?" Luna asked.
"I... both of them," Parvati said, starting to get a little nervous. How much of it really was just Harry and how much of it was her somewhat strange friendship with Pansy? She honestly didn't know.
"They are doing well," Luna replied. "They're still enjoying their time in Africa for now. Pansy said Harry has been teasing her about how she seems to prefer elephants to people, but that seems logical to me. Elephants are big and cute and sweet. Plus, none of them will try to kill you or steal your things. It hardly seems like the best comparison to me."
"I see," Parvati answered, although Luna found her confusion clear due to the cute way her eyebrows scrunched up.
"Did you know that elephants are Pansy's favorite animal?"
"I guess I do now," Parvati said with a slight giggle.
"Yes," Luna nodded before turning thoughtful. "Do you know the difference between the two of us?"
"You mean you and me?"
"The difference is that you're in love with Harry."
"I-"
"It's alright, I'm not accusing you of anything," Luna added. "I love Harry too, but I love Harry and Pansy. Equally... or close to it anyway. We're all individuals, and each relationship is different of course, but I love them both. But in your case, I'm not sure how much of it is affection for the real Harry and how much of it is some ideal of him you have in your mind."
"I know the real Harry," Parvati protested with a scowl.
"Do you?" Luna asked, genuinely curious. "Do you realize that he is a killer?"
"Yeah, I know. He told me so, and he obviously killed some Death Eaters and Riddle." Parvati shrugged. "What's the point?"
"I don't mean that exactly," Luna said. "It is one thing to have to kill someone in self defense in a fight for your life. But with Harry, it's more than that. If Harry found out that someone wanted to harm Pansy, do you think he would contact the aurors and hope for the best? Of course not. He would hunt them down and murder them in their sleep. Do you understand?"
"I..." Parvati gulped. "Yes, I understand. But why are you telling me this?"
"I just wanted to make sure." Luna patted her on the shoulder. "If you still want to be friends with them in the future, I didn't think it would be very nice if you found out something like that and freaked out."
"Okay," Parvati frowned.
"Do you know what poachers are?" Luna asked.
"Um, no."
"People that will hunt and kill animals, usually in order to harvest some part of their bodies. It's most often done to sell something- in the case of elephants, the ivory from their tusks is highly sought after in some parts of the world. How do you think Pansy would take finding people like that trying to slaughter elephants?"
"Not well," Parvati replied. "And I guess that Harry would want to keep his girlfr- I mean, his wife happy. Are you telling me they've been killing people?"
"I'm telling you that they have spent the last three weeks occasionally having to deal with a portion of the dark side of the global ivory trade, and killing all the poachers they find would logically be part of that, whether or not I could confirm such a thing." Luna cocked her head to the side and gave Parvati a rather intense stare. "Does that change the way you think of them?"
Parvati frowned and really thought it over. She didn't think she would ever want to kill someone- not again, at least. What had happened at the Department of Mysteries was something that she had locked away and tried not to think about. All that blood and... it was just so gross.
But poachers? That was something different. Elephants were cute, but she didn't love them as much as Pansy did. Still, she could imagine seeing someone trying to kill a unicorn in order to sell its horn or tail hair and that would be evil. Would she kill someone like that?
Maybe not, maybe she wouldn't be so quick to rush to violence, but she also wouldn't argue with someone that did.
But now it was time to answer Luna's question. "I don't think it changes anything. They might not be Death Eaters, but it sounds like it's only been bad people."
"I'm glad you see it that way," Luna nodded.
"So... what are you going to do with them for your birthday?"
"I don't know. I suppose it doesn't really matter that much as long as we have fun together." Luna used her wand to cancel the privacy spells and then tucked it back behind her ear. "A break from preparing for my OWLs will be nice too."
"Tell them hello for me," Parvati said as she followed Luna back out into the hall.
"I will."
March 12th, 1997 somewhere in Kenya
"I hope Luna won't have too much trouble," Pansy said as they relaxed in their tent late at night. Harry had cast all the protective spells around their campsite once again, even though she had learned them as well. As usual though, it seemed like his spells had a bit more zing to them, and that meant the temporary warding effects to drive off any dangers would likely be much stronger. They'd only run into poachers on two occasions, but both had been in the last three weeks, since they had journeyed into Kenya.
Pansy's rage at those savage bastards had been something to see, and Harry had helped her with taking out her frustrations. Both on the sick fucks that would dare to harm such beautiful creatures, as well as helping her to relax later at night. Thankfully, their tent had a shower... and washing the blood off had probably been too much of a turn on for normal, well-adjusted people to relate to.
She wasn't too worried about that though.
"She'll be fine," Harry said as he came back to sit down beside her, bringing glasses of water for each of them. "You were the one that suggested I kidnap her, remember?"
"That was said as a joke," Pansy snorted.
"Too bad," he smiled. "Luna's spent the last three birthdays with us. There's no sense in breaking the tradition now."
"Only the fact that she's thousands of miles away."
"As if that matters," Harry waved off her concerns.
"Most people can't apparate across an entire continent."
"That's their loss," Harry chuckled. "I've got the power to do it, so why not?"
"I take it Hedwig was glad to see you?"
"Yes, and I had to explain, once again, that she would hate the weather down here. You know, whenever we decide on a place to live, I think we'll need to keep her in mind. So, nothing too hot or tropical."
"I think I prefer keeping that sort of place for vacations anyway," Pansy said as he raised his arm and she curled against his side. "There isn't enough sunscreen in the world for you and me to go to the beach everyday. I like the special occasions, but I think I prefer cooler weather for the most part too."
"Whatever keeps my ladies happy sounds good to me."
"Are you still going to drag me home for that movie this weekend?" Pansy asked.
"Oh yeah!" Harry said with a smile. "It's too bad Luna hasn't seen any of the Star Wars movies before; I wouldn't want her to see the last one first. And you shouldn't whine- I know you enjoyed the first two."
"I think you just wish you had one of those laser swords."
"It's called a lightsaber," Harry corrected her, making Pansy giggle at his grumpy tone. "You know that I know that you only say things like that to tease me."
"Which doesn't mean I won't keep doing it," Pansy laughed.
"Fine, be that way." Harry leaned down to whisper in her ear. "The princess wears an outfit in that movie that I would pay a fortune to see you in."
"See, now you've got me more interested." Pansy looked up with a smirk. "Is this something that little Harry liked?"
"Young Harry only got to see a bit of it, even before little Harry was properly motivated by that sort of thing."
Pansy chuckled and lay her head back down. "I'm sure we can work something out."
"I really love you," Harry sighed. "So, am I going to spend all day watching you and Luna ride elephants around?"
"Maybe. We'll have to see what she wants to do. What about food?"
"I told Dobby earlier that we would need to make her a cake. He said he'll have everything taken care of, and I trust him to handle things."
"He really is amazing," Pansy said. "So, what shall we do tonight?"
"I have an idea or two."
"You always have the same idea," Pansy giggled.
"It's a great idea," Harry replied with a grin. "And we always enjoy ourselves. Besides, we're still on our honeymoon."
"I suppose," Pansy sighed. "Just go easy on me tomorrow so I'll still have energy for Luna's visit."
"So tonight I can try to drive you out of your mind?" Harry smirked. "Challenge accepted!"
March 13th, 1997 Ravenclaw tower
Luna had packed an outfit for warmer weather and changed into her pyjamas then she went down to the common room. It was mostly empty, but she wasn't concerned about bothering anyone. Her wand was tucked behind her ear and she sat near a window, staring at the moon that was about to dip below the horizon.
A shadow zoomed through the night sky and came to a stop just beyond the glass. The tip of Harry's wand lit up and she smiled and got up to open the window. "I've missed you."
"Then it's a good thing that I took Pansy's joke for real," Harry grinned. "Your ride awaits, my dear."
"Lovegood, what's going on- is that Potter?"
Luna turned and saw Cho Chang staring at them- apparently, she had been one of the few staying up late. Preparing for her NEWTs, no doubt. Luna just shrugged as she answered, "Harry is here to kidnap me. Didn't you hear me the other day in the Great Hall? I thought everyone was listening in."
"I just didn't think you were serious," Cho muttered.
"I was," Luna replied serenely before climbing out the window. "Have a good night. Oh, and would you close this behind me?"
The other girl was still gawking at them as Harry started to fly off over the lake. "It's a bit chilly, Harry."
"We'll be past the wards soon, so I wouldn't bother with a warming charm if I were you," he answered. "You definitely won't need it when we get where we're going."
"Alright."
They stopped briefly at Harry and Pansy's flat, where he left his broom. One loud crack later, and they were standing in the living room of a magical tent.
"Luna!" Pansy ran over to her friend and hugged her. "Happy birthday!"
"Is it past midnight here?"
"Yeah, I think we're two or three hours ahead of Scotland," Harry replied.
"That is why Dobby has already made the birthday cake for miss Luna," the house elf added as he floated said cake over to a table, candles already lit.
"Thank you very much, Dobby," she said. "It looks delicious."
"Thank you very much, miss Luna," he replied. "Dobby did his best, even with mistress Pansy interfering."
"I was helping," Pansy whined.
"If you say so, mistress," Dobby said with a smile. Harry and Luna laughed at the two of them.
"I love your family," Luna grinned. "You're all so snarky, but you never take things too seriously."
"We've had enough of taking things seriously, I think," Harry answered. "Now, it's time for us to take things easy and have fun."
"I'll drink to that," Pansy snorted. "Or I would if it weren't so late."
"Let's not have hangovers when we've got a full day of Luna celebrating still to come," Harry suggested.
"Besides, who needs wine when we've got cake!" the birthday girl cheerfully added.
And as usual, Luna's sweet tooth helped her plow through three pieces of that cake. By the time she was finished eating, Pansy had drifted off to sleep, the side of her face smushed against Harry's shoulder. Luna grinned at the two of them and Harry whispered, "I tried to get her to take a nap earlier, but she was too excited to see you."
"I was excited to get to visit you too," Luna agreed quietly.
"Has everything been okay back at Hogwarts?" Harry asked. "No one's been bothering you or anything, I hope."
"No, it's been fine. But I could use a break from the lead up to our OWLs, so I think this will help me relax."
"Good," Harry nodded. "I think we're finally going to move on soon. Pansy complained a little bit, but I promised to bring her back to see elephants more in the future. Now that I've proven that I can apparate across continents, she was much less fussy about it."
"I wonder how far I'll be able to go," Luna mused. "Daddy usually just gets international portkeys, but he does get a discounted rate due to his press credentials."
"Dobby and I could teach you, if you want."
"I'm in no hurry."
"Okay." Harry looked down at his sleeping wife who had just a tiny amount of drool wetting his shirt. "Let me tuck her in."
"How big is the bed?" Luna asked. "Is it big enough that I can join you for birthday snuggles?"
"Sure sweetie."
As Pansy started to wake up, she felt incredibly warm and cuddly. If not for the spells keeping the tent cool compared to the savannah outside, she might have even been uncomfortable, but instead she only felt nice. Harry's arm was around her as usual, and the inevitable morning erection was poking against her bum too.
The pair of breasts pressing against her own was different though.
One eye peeked open and she saw Luna staring at her. "Good morning!"
"Morning Luna," she muttered. Harry yawned behind her.
"It's probably barely morning," he said. "We were up pretty late."
"Then we should definitely get up soon," the birthday girl said happily. "Don't you have elephants to show me?"
Harry would laugh about it later, but that undeniably got Pansy moving more easily than he usually could. Within half an hour, they had all eaten, gotten dressed, and journeyed out into the wilderness. Thankfully, they were camped very near to the herd of elephants they had seen the day before and thus finding the huge, beautiful creatures wasn't difficult.
One of the largest of the females allowed his wife to approach her. "This lovely lady is the one I call Aunty."
"Why?" Luna asked.
"Look over that direction." Pansy pointed off to the west a bit at an adult and a 'baby' elephant, although the calf already came up to her chest and probably weighed twice as much as she did. "We weren't lucky enough to see the little guy's birth, but his mum has still been very protective of him. When we first got here, this lady came and stood between us and the new mother, like family providing a buffer."
As the elephant came right up to them and Pansy reached over to pet her left side, Luna smiled. "She doesn't seem frightened of you at all."
"No, Aunty's a sweetheart," Pansy grinned. "Like you. Plus, it helps that Harry cast cheering charms on them when we met."
"And every day since," he added.
"Do you think she'll let me pet her too?" Luna wondered.
"Looks like it," Pansy said with a nod.
Luna stepped closer and slowly stroked the elephant's skin. "They're even bigger up close like this. Of course, I think the ones I saw with Daddy are a bit smaller than African elephants too."
"Just watch out for-"
"Eep!" Luna yelped as Aunty the elephant's trunk went sniffing into her hair.
"Yeah, that," Pansy giggled. "She's inquisitive about us too."
Harry chuckled but stood back and let the ladies, humanoid and pachyderm, have their fun.
And sure enough, it wasn't too long before 'Aunty' had let Pansy and Luna climb up on top of her and go for a ride. A rather slow ride, definitely, but they all seemed to be enjoying it. Both of his girls were talking and laughing while Aunty joined in by trumpeting a few times as the herd spent the afternoon hanging around the pond of water that was likely the reason they had chosen that spot.
Knowing the enormous creatures would be hungry as well, Harry had been transfiguring pieces from a nearby dead tree into various fruits. The elephants seemed to enjoy watermelon a lot, so while Pansy and Luna were playing, he must have created dozens of them- and of course, he'd been using cutting curses to slice them open so that the herd could enjoy their meal more easily.
Unfortunately, the trio was not to be the only group of humans interested in those elephants that day.
Late in the afternoon, Harry heard the unmistakable sound of a motor vehicle approaching. He turned from watching the girls who were still atop Aunty and having plenty of fun. Off in the distance, he could see some sort of truck headed their way.
'Not this again. Not today, dammit.'
His wand was already in his hand, but a presence slid down over him and he relaxed, allowing the truck to get even closer. If Harry had turned around (if he could have turned around), he would have seen the elephants start to get nervous before Pansy grabbed her wand and started firing a new batch of cheering spells at them all.
But his focus was on the truck that came to a halt and the group of men that started disembarking... and the guns in their hands.
Before they could say anything, he raised his left hand and snapped his fingers. The men all fell over, like puppets with their strings cut, each of the poachers' lives ended instantaneously.
He walked around to the back of the truck and saw a boy, a few years younger than himself, who seemed quite ready to flee. Near the boy, there were a number of nasty looking cutting implements, tools for them to steal the ivory tusks. With another snap of his fingers, the blades all rusted and then turned to dust. The boy pissed himself.
At another time, it might have been funny- but Harry was no longer in charge, nor capable of laughter.
The voice that came out was deep, menacing, and speaking a language that Harry did not know. The boy understood though. "Can you drive?"
After waiting for a shaky nod from the boy, the voice continued. "You will return from where you came. Warn any others you see. Death comes for those who would harm the elephants. Do you understand?"
The boy nodded again.
"Then go."
As the boy climbed out of the back of the truck, taking care to stay far away from the terrifying stranger, Harry walked back to the corpses and decapitated them all with a wave of his fingers. Snapping his fingers, the heads were sent to the bed of the truck.
If they wanted a grisly trophy, they would get one.
The boy quickly started the truck and peeled out, driving away as fast as he could.
After sighing, Harry Potter sunk down to his knees.
"What the hell was that?" Luna quietly asked Pansy.
"I don't know. I haven't seen him like that before." Pansy let out a breath that she didn't realize she had been holding. "I know he doesn't speak Swahili either."
"Scary Harry," Luna whispered, then wrapped an arm around Pansy's waist and leaned against her back. "At least the elephants are safe now."
"I hope it stays that way," Pansy replied softly. She patted Luna's hand and then called out, "Harry, are you alright?"
"I think so."
He felt a little drained, but all things considered, it wasn't too uncomfortable. Forcing himself to his feet, Harry began vanishing the guns.
"Maybe we should leave the elephants for today," Luna suggested.
"That did kind of ruin the mood," Pansy agreed with a sigh.
"I'm getting hungry anyway," Luna added. "Harry, I think it's time to go home."
Harry snorted. "What do you mean by home?"
"Let's go back to my place and pick up my dad," Luna suggested. "We can all go out to eat and put that nasty business behind us."
Pansy sighed. "I suppose we do need to see other parts of the world at some point on our honeymoon."
"We can always come visit elephants again some time," Harry smirked.
"You know I'm going to hold you to that," his wife replied with a wink.
The good news was that they had (mostly) had a very nice day with Luna. The birthday girl herself made no further mention of Harry's brief encounter with the poachers. Pansy, on the other hand, was a bit worried. She knew about his 'agreement' with Death and she was rightly concerned that today had been an example of some cosmic strangeness. Who was to know how often it might occur in the future?
Pansy was thinking about these things while brushing her teeth and getting ready for bed. Maybe not to sleep just yet though. They may have been stopping over at their flat for the night, but the honeymoon was still ongoing.
When she came out, she noticed a dim light in their bedroom. Harry had lit candles, she realized, smiling at another of his little romantic touches. That didn't make things easier, but they did help to lighten her mood.
"Hey sexy," he grinned appreciatively at the purple babydoll she was wearing.
"I may have remembered you saying you liked this old thing," she smirked back at him. "But before we get to anything fun, I need to ask you... that thing with the poachers, was that...?"
"Yeah, I think so," he shrugged. "It felt odd, like I was only partially in control of my body. I mean, I don't regret it, but it was like someone was... directing me I guess. I can't explain any other way that I could just snap my fingers and have people drop dead. It wasn't a power I'd felt before, but the presence (I guess) was like what I'd seen when I was dead. Or almost dead."
"Did he, or it, tell you anything?"
"No."
"So, we're guessing that Death took over just to stop those poachers before they could make a mess of things?" Pansy asked. "That's..." she sighed. "I don't suppose you could call Death up and ask what the deal was."
"I don't think it works that way," he replied.
"That's a pity," she said as she started to crawl into bed.
"Yeah." Harry pulled the covers back to reveal that he was already nude.
"Anticipating something, were you?" she chuckled.
"I don't believe in letting anything stand between us and some fun while we're still on our honeymoon."
"Speaking of which, where are we going next?"
Harry was busy sliding his hands up her thighs as she moved to straddle him. "Wherever you want. We're going to be here for the weekend though."
"I guess I could call up Vanessa and see how they're doing."
"Yeah," he groaned as she slowly wiggled on his lap. "Just remember, I am taking you to see Return of the Jedi at some point."
"How many of those Star Wars movies are there, anyway?" she asked, doing her best not to let his ministrations cause any hitch in her voice.
"Just three." Harry won the battle and she raised her arms to let him pull the silk nightgown over her head.
"I suppose I can suffer through one more," she giggled as he hit a really sensitive spot with his right hand, now sliding down below her waist. "And I believe you did say something about a sexy outfit in it."
Harry growled as he pulled away from her neck and stared at her with a darker than usual grin. "If you dress up like Leia does, I will do absolutely anything you want."
"Don't you already do that?" Pansy's smirk was broken as she gasped when his fingers reached a very nice, slippery spot between her thighs. She shivered and pushed him back against the bed. "No more talking."
Author's Note/Introduction/Mission Statement:
Assuming you've read the previous story, I think I should clue people in to what I imagine this story will end up being- likely long as hell just like We're In This Together. This is meant to cover the rest of their lives after all.
You may also want to note the genre change from Romance/Drama to Family. That's because a lot of stuff will eventually involve Harry as a dad, which I think should be fun. Especially this version of Harry.
The story will probably have a lot of fluff, banter, slice of life, and less of a strong narrative focus since there is no longer the whole 'war with Voldemort & the Death Eaters' to keep the plot on the rails. I've always been more of a characters over plot kind of guy, but if you feel otherwise, consider this your warning.
I'm guessing I'll probably be writing this story for years to come. Frankly, the last year of my life has been fucking awful, and hanging out with these characters in my head is way for me to combat the stress. If that sounds self-indulgent to you, then I have to admit I agree.
Hope you enjoy it.
