Disclaimer: I'm too young to be Rowling so there is sadly no way Harry Potter is mine…

Placing: 29 years after the war– and 6 after the first…

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sSsSsSsSs

DAYLIGHT ROOM

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"How was your playdate, today, Luna, darling?" her mother asked when she entered their home after having dutifully circumvented their garden door.

"It was wonderful, Mummy!" Luna said happily, and skipped into the kitchen, Harry on her heals.

"Oh," her mother said and looked up before she started to frown.

"Luna, dear?"

"Yes, Mummy?"

"Can you tell me why there is a boy in my kitchen?"

Luna blinked dreamily.

"That's because I brought him home with me, Mummy," she told her mother matter-of-factly.

Her mother stared at her.

Luna looked at her innocently.

"Do his parents know he's here?" her mother finally asked.

Luna contemplated that.

Did the dead know where someone was?

In the end, she looked searchingly at Harry.

He shrugged his shoulders before nodding.

"Yes," Luna said.

Her mother looked surprised.

"Oh," she said, before looking at Harry with a frown. "And where did you meet your new friend?"

This time Luna had to think about the answer.

"Do you want to know where I met him today or where I met him when we met the first time, Mummy?" she finally asked when she couldn't figure out what her mother wanted to know by herself.

"Where you met him the first time," her mother said with a sigh.

"Oh," Luna nodded. "I met him at Hogwarts."

Her mother looked at her in disbelief.

"At Hogwarts?" she asked.

Luna nodded earnestly.

"Just like my other friends," she confided into her mother. "Just like you did with your friends."

For a moment, her mother looked at her blankly, then comprehension filled her eyes.

"Luna, darling," she said. "Are you telling me that because Daddy and I told you that you'll meet true friends at Hogwarts?"

Luna contemplated that.

She had met her friends at Hogwarts.

But she had also always hoped for friends until Hogwarts.

There had been Ginny, sometimes, but the girl had started to ignore her in their first year at Hogwarts and while Ginny had apologized later on, Luna had still felt hurt.

And then, just like her parents had always told her, she had met the rest of her true friends at Hogwarts, too…

"Yes," she decided on.

Her parents had been right, after all.

She had met her true friends at Hogwarts.

Her mother sighed at that.

"Ok," she said. "So, you met at Hogwarts. And where did you meet today?"

Luna crooked her head, thoughtfully.

That nearly sounded as if her mother didn't belief her and instead was just humouring her.

For a moment, she contemplated that thought, then she dismissed it.

Maybe her mother was just tired.

And it was a bit hard to believe, after all…

"In Diagon Alley," Luna told her. "Today, when I met up with Neville."

And Draco – but better not swamp her mother with information. The poor woman was working too hard anyway.

Maybe, Luna should lend her a hand for the next few years.

Ultimately, it wasn't as if she had a lot to do for now.

Finding wrackspurts and nargles wasn't the most time-consuming work, after all.

"And what is he doing here, now?" her mother asked, still looking at Harry with a frown.

Luna blinked innocently.

"He's going to stay the night, of course, Mummy," she pointed out to her mother and made a mental note to help her mother a bit more. She definitely worked too much if she asked self-explanatory questions like that.

"Of course," her mother agreed and sighed. "And you said his parents know?"

"Yes, Mummy," Luna agreed, now really concerned for her mother. Normally, the woman didn't have to ask the same question twice.

"Alright," her mother said and rubbed her forehead. "I guess I'll see what I can make for dinner then."

Luna exchanged a concerned glance with Harry. Her mother looked stressed enough without making dinner on top of it. Thankfully, Harry knew Luna good enough to understand her even without words.

"How about we make dinner, Mrs. Lovegood?" he offered.

Clearly, he had picked up on Luna's concern for her mother and decided to step in and help her out.

Her mother frowned.

"Aren't you two a bit too young to cook?" she asked.

Harry smiled at her sweetly.

"I've cooked before," he assured her. "You don't have to worry, Mrs Lovegood. Luna and I can manage."

Luna nodded and then reached for her mother and pulled her out of the chair.

"We're going to make something simple, Mummy," she assured her mother.

Her mother hesitated.

"Are you sure you can handle cooking?" she asked concerned. "What about knives? You could cut yourselves. I'd prefer if you didn't use knives."

"No kitchen knives," Harry immediately assured her. "And nothing I haven't handled before."

For a moment, Luna's mother still hesitated.

"We'll be really, really careful, Mummy," Luna added. "And we keep it simple."

Her mother looked first at Luna and then at Harry. In the end, she straightened her shoulders and nodded decisively.

"And you call when you need help," she added, a bit of sternness in her voice while she let Luna drag her out of the kitchen.

Luna guessed that this request wasn't too much to handle.

"Of course, Mummy," she agreed.

She was quite happy when her mother sighed and left the kitchen.

She was less happy when she heard her mother mumble about testing one of her potions, instead.

But… the last time nothing had happened with the potion her mother was working on…

Nevertheless, she was glad when she saw Harry cast a discreet spell on her mother.

The moment her mother was out of the kitchen, she asked Harry.

"Safety spell?"

Harry nodded.

"The one you invented," he assured her.

Luna nodded.

"Good," she said and then gestured to the kitchen table. "Now, let's sit down and talk about nargles."

"We need to cook," Harry reminded her. "We promised your mother."

Luna hummed.

"Without kitchen knives?" she asked.

Harry shrugged. "I seldomly use kitchen knives," he countered. "Cutting spells or a good scalpel, sure, but kitchen knives… well… they're normally either too sharp or not sharp enough, so, they're actually never quite right."

"Huh," Luna said surprised and crooked her head thoughtfully. "Never thought of that, but, sure, you're right."

Then she looked Harry over carefully.

"Do you have a scalpel with you?"

Harry grinned and lifted his hand. His fingers closed around a suddenly appearing scalpel.

"Magic, Luna, dear."

Luna snickered. "You're a wizard, Harry Potter," she added gravely. Harry rolled his eyes and Luna decided that it was time to change the topic to something else important.

"Do you know something easy to cook?" she asked.

Harry's face turned thoughtful.

"What ingredients do I have to work with?"

Luna guessed that the question was a good one, so instead of sitting down, she went to the pantries and searched them for food, before opening the refrigerator to do the same.

Harry stepped up next to her to look at the food with her.

"Enough," Harry concluded after they had looked through everything.

"Ok," Luna said.

She had no idea about cooking.

She was a good baker, but the moment she had to cook, things tended to explode.

In then end, her husband and her had decided that he would do the cooking and she would do the baking.

It had been easier that way.

And it had also ensured that they could stop relying on 'Reparo' that much in the kitchen.

Not that Luna had ever minded casting a 'Reparo' or two, but after one or two exploded kitchens and even more exploded pans, even she had needed a break.

So, Luna stepped back and watched when Harry opened first the refrigerator and then some of the pantries again to pull out the things he needed. He sat them down on the counter, pulled over one of the sturdy kitchen chairs and then climbed on it so that he could actually work on the counter.

Harry reached for one of the things he had removed from the refrigerator, just to stop dead in his tracks.

He crooked his head and frowned at the things in front of him thoughtfully.

"Say, Luna," he finally said, still looking at the stuff in front of him. "What kind of meal is easy to make?"

Luna blinked. "Don't you know that?"

Harry's frown deepened.

"I know how to cook… but I'm not sure what you'd consider easy," he answered.

Luna hummed. "What did you plan to make?" she asked him thoughtfully.

Harry scratched his head.

"I thought about avocado cream soup with smoked salmon for an appetiser, as a main vegetarian lasagna and maybe chocolate mousse as a dessert," he offered up before he frowned. "If you think that's too complicated, I could go with potato courgette soup, duck à l'orange with rice as a main and vanilla raspberry mousse instead?"

Luna crooked her head thoughtfully.

"What about a chocolate raspberry mousse?" she asked with a frown.

Harry shrugged.

"Sure," he said. "If you want that, I can do that, too."

Luna hummed. "I think the lasagna sounds easier," she finally declared after thinking a bit about it. "It has less words."

Harry blinked in surprise.

"So… less words means easier?" he asked thoughtfully and when Luna shrugged, he nodded as if she had agreed with him. "Potato courgette soup, vegetarian lasagna and a slightly more complicated chocolate raspberry mousse it is," he finally decided proudly and then looked through some of the ingredients he had taken to put them back where he fetched them from, just to return to his work station with different ingredients.

Luna sat down on a chair at the kitchen table and watched him work for a moment or two.

Finally, she said. "I found some nargles for you, some seem to be a bit easy to get to, but I guess we have to start small," then she looked at her fingers. "I mean, we're small already, so starting small seems to be the right idea."

Harry hummed.

"Anybody particular I should start with?" he asked interestedly.

Luna crooked her head thoughtfully. "James Blishwick."

Harry blinked and looked over his shoulder at her thoughtfully.

"Why him?"

"He killed Hedwig in the old time line," Luna reasoned.

Harry nodded briskly. "Ledger?" he asked.

His faithful book appeared on the table with a dull thump.

"What can I do for you, master?" Ledger asked faithfully, after opening on a random page.

"James Blishwick."

"Oh, him." Ledger said and immediately ruffled through their pages. "Hmm…"

"Anything particularly important he's about to do?" Harry asked while turning back to his cooking. Luna leaned back, her eyes fixed on Ledger.

"He's got a son already," Ledger said. "As long as you don't kill the son before he has a child, then no, nothing important."

Harry hummed. "And the son is important?"

"His grandson will be the one who will develop a way to hide from all those new electronics that are about to pop up within the next generations," Ledger replied.

"So… no accidentally killing Blishwick's child and all that, got it," Harry nodded.

"And nothing too traumatizing," Ledger added. "Otherwise, you might end up in the same situation with him like you did with Marcus Flint's child in the future."

Harry grimaced.

"That bad?" he asked with a whine. "I mean… that incident involved practically mountains of paperwork!"

"Worse," Ledger told him, clearly unruffled by Harry's dramatics.

Harry sighed. "Accident for Blishwick, it is," he agreed, sounding resigned. "But… it'll be a blood one…"

"And far away from where the child can find him," Ledger added dryly. "Except you want to recreate the situation with Stanislav Dubrowsky."

"And far, far away from the child!" Harry immediately agreed.

Luna crooked her head, looking thoughtfully first at Harry and then at Ledger. "Are you always listening to your book?" she asked interestedly.

Harry grimaced. "Well, since I really don't want to add to my paperwork, yes, I learned to listen to them. You have no idea what kind of paperwork I'm stuck with when I go and kill one of those that are doing something important." He shuddered. "Not to mention all that research I end up doing to find someone else able to do what my nargle did."

"Huh," Luna said thoughtfully.

Harry shook his head and continued, ignoring her wordless comment. "No, I learned it's easier to circumvent that whole drama by simply asking Ledger and then maybe waiting until my nargles don't do anything important for the future anymore. Less paperwork and all that."

He nodded decisively. Luna hummed.

"What about others?" she asked. "What if they disrupt something?"

"Normally that doesn't happen," Harry said. "There are very few people who actually manage to kill someone if the person they try to kill still has an important role to play. And if they try… well… just look at what happened to Voldemort… I mean… I wasn't that important and all that, but just the fact that I had the potential to get the book thrown at me reduced him to ashes. So… no, most people don't succeed with killing someone important."

Luna crooked her head thoughtfully, so Harry continued. "Sadly," he said and threw a look at Ledger who was snickering on the table. "I'm not most people."

Then he turned back to the stove.

"Hmm," Luna agreed thoughtfully before they fell into silence.

Harry made the pasta from scratch before stacking the lasagna while Luna sat at the kitchen table humming.

When Harry put the lasagna into the oven and started on the dessert, Luna finally spoke up again.

"Do you think we can save Mummy?" she wanted to know. "She seems to take very little care when it comes to her life."

Harry hummed.

"She's experimenting with potions, isn't she?" he asked thoughtfully. When Luna sighed and then nodded in agreement, Harry hummed thoughtfully.

"I think us for together should be able to come up with some safety measures for her," he decided. "You might have to talk to her about them, but the moment she'll use them, she should be reasonably safe."

Luna crooked her head. "So… she might still be hurt?"

"Better than dead," Harry countered and Luna had to agree with him. They descended into silence again afterwards.

Harry was working on his soup when Luna finally decided that she had to bring up a topic that had been bothering her for a while now. "Harry, did you know that Voldemort sounds a bit like the German words 'wollte Mord'?" she asked thoughtfully.

Harry turned towards her in confusion. "So?"

Luna shrugged. "Well… 'wollte Mord' means 'wants murder'… and I've been wondering for a while if that means that he wants to murder or if it means that he wants to be murdered… since it really sounds like it could mean both."

Harry scratched his head.

"I thought Voldemort is French and means 'Flight from Death'?" He offered up then he frowned. "Or was it 'Flight of Death'?" He shrugged. "Well, doesn't matter. He's either afraid of death and fleeing or he is presumptuous enough to believe that he brings death to other people… since both of it fits quite well, I think I can be forgiven for not knowing."

Luna frowned. "My French isn't the best," she admitted. "But… I think it means 'Flight of Death'." Then her frown deepened. "But… if that was the case, shouldn't he call himself Voldelamort, instead? Or am I mixing up my grammar again?"

Harry blinked.

"That… would sound really, really weird," he finally decided.

Luna hummed.

Harry stirred the soup, while a short silence reigned between them.

"I think we could just call him Riddle?" Harry finally offered up thoughtfully.

"He's not really a riddle, though," Luna pointed out.

"Well… no," Harry said. "I mean, I know him quite well and I know what he's after so I'm not really concerned with trying to figure him out. But… Riddle is his legal name, so maybe we should use that one?"

He looked into the oven to check on his lasagna.

"Or do you think we should go with Puzzle instead? I mean, with all those Horcruxes lying around, he's definitely a puzzle."

Luna hummed in agreement.

Harry hopped down from his chair to and then started to put dessert in the fridge for later.

"Let's keep it simple," Luna said.

"Tommy?" Harry offered up immediately. Luna blinked.

Harry pouted. "You said to keep it simple."

Luna blinked some more.

"You're right," she agreed thoughtfully. "It's simple."

Harry grinned.

"I'll write Draco and Neville later on," she said and stood up to set the table. "They'll want to know that we have a new friend called Tommy."

"He's my nargle," Harry reminded her.

"But Draco is afraid of his Horcrux," Luna countered. "He might be a bit more relaxed when he calls it Tommy."

Harry blinked. "Huh," he said, went to the oven and removed the lasagna. "Didn't think of that."

In that moment, Luna's mother returned to the kitchen.

Harry sat down the lasagna so that it could cool down a bit.

"What in Merlin's name are you doing?" Luna's mother asked with huge eyes.

Harry frowned at her.

"I cooked dinner?" he offered up, his face showing his concern for Luna's mother.

Luna frowned as well while she finished setting the table.

"You seem to be really stressed, Mummy," she said.

Her mother gawked at her and then at Harry.

"What… what is that?" she pointed at Harry's soup and the lasagna.

Harry started to fill the plates with soup.

"Potato courgette soup, vegetarian lasagna and chocolate raspberry mousse for dessert," he told her, while he subtly sent out a spell to check up on the poor woman's health.

"I thought you would make something simple!" Luna's mother cried out.

Harry turned an accusing glare towards Luna.

"Apparently, less words doesn't mean simple," he said and frowned at her. "We should have gone with avocado cream soup with smoked salmon, duck à l'orange and vanilla raspberry mousse instead."

Luna's mother gawked at him and then collapsed into one of the kitchen chairs where she proceeded to burry her head in her hands with a groan.

Harry and Luna exchanged a confused glance.

"Maybe you should have left out the raspberry from the dessert?" Luna offered up concerned.

Her mother just groaned louder.

Harry blinked.

"Oh…" he said. "Guess you're right, Luna. The raspberries are the problem."

And with that concerning realisation, Harry looked at the fridge.

"Do you think she'll survive it?" he asked Luna. "I doubt I can remove the raspberries now. It's too late for that."

Luna's mother whimpered. It sounded like she was saying something along the line of 'children' and 'oven' and 'stove' and 'knives'.

Harry looked at her in confusion. "I didn't use knives," he assured her. "And I used the oven and stove before, so don't worry."

That just got him another groan.

In that moment, Luna's father stepped into the kitchen.

"Hmm! That smells fantastic!"

"Harry and I cooked, Daddy!" Luna proclaimed proudly.

Her father smiled. "Well done, my little wrackspurt!" he said happily.

Luna's mother just groaned some more.

"No, Xeno," she said. "Not 'well done'! Don't praise your daughter for using kitchen utensils she's far too you too use!"

Harry blinked. "There's an age requirement to use some kitchen utensils?" he asked confused. "I never heard about that.

Luna shrugged.

"Mummy is weird sometimes," she offered up and then sat down at the table. "Now, let's eat before it gets cold."

She ate a spoon of soup. "Oh! Yummy!"

And while her father sat down to eat with her and Harry happily, her mother went over and checked first Harry and then Luna over full of concern. Only then, she sat down eating.

Luna and Harry looked at each other.

"Told you, Mummy is weird sometimes," Luna just said when she met Harry's incredulous look and continued to eat her food.

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Well, and there you go, little children at the stove. Luna's poor, poor mother…

I hope you liked the chapter.

'Till next time

Ebenbild