The sun rose up onto the Moon household, lighting up its interior with a warm light. A shining ray enveloping the face of one Harry Potter. The still sleeping boy squinted his eyes, and tried to move his right arm to block his eyelids; but he found a heavy weight resting on the limb, and he opened his eye a tad to see what was preventing him from raising his arm. The restful face of Lilith Moon greeted him, and he smiled at her peaceful face and he relaxed into her warmth to stave off the remaining cold temperatures. He opened his eyes once again to survey his surroundings…
And saw the smirking wife and husband duo, watching him hold their daughter in his arms.
Harry bolted right out of bed and Lilith's head fell into a pillow with a fluff!
"Good morning, Mr. And Mrs. Moon! Um… This isn't what it looks like." A pair of cynically raised eyebrows met his statement.
"And, what does it look like?" Gordon tittered on the edge of laughter as Harry began trying to think up of an explanation, his stammering proportionally increasing along with the reddening of his face.
Without notice, Lilith's muffled groaning resounded the living room, quieting the three other inhabitants of the house. She turned her head to look at Harry's direction, "Harry? Come back, it's too cold and I need you to keep me warm…"
In any other circumstances, Harry would have definitely obliged and jumped right back into bed, but the presence of her parents had him attempting to signal to Lilith that they were not alone. LIlith, dazed and drowsy, still noticed Harry's questionable behaviour and his glances to whatever was behind her, so she turned around to see what the fuss was.
…
"Oh…"
A sound of an apparition pop made Ginny Weasley turn her head towards the entrance of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. There were many visitors coming and going out of the Black residence, and the familiar tuff of unnaturally bright colored hair made it known who this particular visitor was. The woman waved as she neared the young redhead.
And promptly fell over on her face.
Nymphadora Tonks cursed at the blasphemous umbrella stand that had tripped her once again for the nth time. She steadied a death stare at the offending item, hoping it would go up in flames at her glare, releasing her intent to destroy it and make it know the feeling of fear.
Unfortunately, due to it being an insentient object, nothing changed, which only further irked the spunky auror.
Ginny, who held back a grin of mirth from watching Tonks fall, neared towards her and she helped the poor, accident-prone woman back to her feet.
"One of these days, I'll throw that piece of wretched furniture into a furnace and watch it burn into a crisp." Tonks said menacingly. Ginny, however, rolled her eyes at Tonk's childish behaviour. They entered the kitchen together to see Molly Weasley, as always, preparing the day's lunch.
Molly greeted the two girls with a smile, "Good morning you two! The food will be ready in a minute; oh Ginny, do you mind calling Harry down? He hasn't been outside that dreadful room of his and he needs the fresh air."
Ginny nodded and started to make her way upstairs, before suddenly being pulled down to the kitchen. She raised her head in a frown at Tonks, "What was that for?"
"Um… Well, I think I should go get him. I think Hermione wanted to speak to you in the library." Ginny raised a suspicious eyebrow at Tonks, then she forced her arm back from Tonks' grip.
"Geez, fine. If you wanted to speak to him you could've just said so." Ginny's receding footsteps slowly disappeared to another part of the house. Tonks sweated a bit at Ginny's statement, then she quickly ran up the stairs and entered Buckbeaks's room, where said hippogriff lazily opened its eyes at Tonks. The metamorphmagus slowly but surely transformed her body; she shrunk a bit, her hair became black, and her eyes shone green. She then proceeded to a closet and picked out a jumper with a pair of jeans and sneakers. A compromise that she had agreed with her being Harry Potter was that she was allowed free reign to the Boy-who-lived's wardrobe, albeit only reaching to simple clothing choices, but it was enough that she felt more secure in acting like Harry. A pair of glasses lay next to the closet on a desk, where she picked it up and wore it, pushing it up on the bridge of her nose.
After checking herself in the mirror for any imperfections - She had several photos of Harry posted on the edges of the mirror, procured by Hermione, who apparently had someone taking pictures of the boy - and felt satisfied with her transformation. Taking a deep breath, she turned around to see Buckbeak standing up and appraising her, she let the prideful creature take a look at her. Buckbeak then returned to his spot on the floor, seeming pleased with her work, which further increased her confidence. She made her way out and down into the Black Library, where Ginny was stuck in a conversation with Hermione.
Tonks sat next to Hermione, sliding into the seat next to her and combing his hair back with his hand, "Hello ladies, what're you two talking about?"
Hermione flashed a smile her way and pointed to a book in her hand, "Oh, well Ginny and I were just talking about this fascinating book; you see it entails all about the different types of family magic that different pureblood houses have. I mean, the obvious ones are the Slytherins and the Gryffindors, with their ability to speak to snakes and the ability to summon the Sword of Gryffindor respectively, but for as the other families-"
As Hermione started to drone on and on, Tonks quickly shot a look of amusement at Ginny, who returned it with a mime of herself dozing off. They silently chuckled and returned their attention back to Hermione as she finished her impromptu lesson.
"-Which gives perspective to why being a pureblood can be construed to being of a higher status, although the bigotry and discrimination that modern purebloods seem to be so fond of still has no excuse, regardless of anything this book says."
Ginny gave a mock expression of shock, "Hermione, saying something negative about a book? Harry, quick, call the others!"
Hermione glared at Ginny, "Oh please, I'm not that blind!"
Tonks coughed out a name - Suspiciously similar to "Lockhart" - which caused Hermione to turn her glare to the disguised metamorphmagus. Ginny donned an easy grin, before questioning Tonks, "Oh yeah. What did Tonks have to talk to you about, Harry? I was going to go and get you, but Tonks started acting suspiciously. I guess she had something to talk to you about?"
"Ah, don't worry. It was just something about Dumbledore reminding me to keep safe and have a Merry Christmas." Tonks remarked rather quickly, though Ginny looked like she had expected something more but nonetheless accepted what she had said at face value.
"Dinner's ready!"
The shout of the matron of the Weasley household caused the youngest Weasley to stand up and make her way to the door. She stopped as she noticed that Harry and Hermione had not made a move to go downstairs. An inquisitive look was shot at both of them.
"We'll catch up, we just have something to talk about. D.A." Ginny nodded and left without any further questions. Tonks rested her cheek on her hand and turned to Hermione.
"So, how'd I do this time?" Hermione hummed a bit, before donning a smile at her.
"You're a natural now. Though did you really have to make fun of me? I had almost smacked you with this book." The metamorphmagus let out a gentle laugh and took the book from Hermione's grasp.
Tonks opened the book and flipped past several pages, a playful smirk on her face "Harry would've done the same I bet, only I'm sure you would've hit him."
She stopped at a particular page and found the name she had been searching for.
"Malfoy: This pureblood family has had a penchant for businesses and marketing. Several generations have been known to be founders or creators of several wizarding products that became renowned in the wizarding world. Blegh, might as well have written that they were the textbook definition of slimy, disgusting, and obnoxious." She threw the book back to Hermione, who's scandalous look at a book being treated so carelessly was ignored by the woman disguised as her best friend.
As she was about to close the book, a name had caught her eye. Hermione read on and a face of utter surprise took hold of her; at her expression, Tonks tried to get closer to see what she had read but her nose was almost crushed by the sudden shut of the book. Tonks' grumbling brought a sense of vindication to Hermione and she stood up with a smile and started to go to the kitchen, Tonks scrambling to catch up to her.
"Mind telling me what you saw?" Hermione gave a mock look of consternation at Tonks' question.
"Wouldn't you already know, being Harry?"
Hermione's remark was met once again by grumbling from the young auror.
"Well excuse me, next time you guys need anything from me, I'll be sure to give you-"
Her words were cut off as the universe decided to have a bit of fun with Tonks and she slipped on one of the steps.
"God damn it!" She managed to let out a final curse at the indignity of it all.
"Why?! Why have you forsaken me?!"
"Gordon, dear. Please get up, it's just a slice of toast."
Gordon's lament was not impressing Lilian; whilst Harry and Lilith silently watched from the sidelines, eating their own lunch.
A look of betrayal was etched upon Gordon's face at his wife's nonchalant demeanour, "No, don't you see? There's a higher power, making it so that every piece of toast, draped with delectable spread, drops with the spread landing directly on the floor!"
He picked up the piece of toast, flopping about sadly in his grip. Lilian's deadpan expression didn't change at her husband's theatrics; wishing to nip this in the bud and actually finish lunch in time, she spoke to Gordon softly, "Come on, honey. Today's the day we take a look at Lilith's memories, remember?"
At the not so subtle reminder, the male P.I. jumped up and his dreary expression at the death of his lunch was now in the back of his mind, as he focused on the hunt and the advantage they would get to finally knock down Robert Tassler.
"Of course! Come on then, no time to waste!"
"Honey-" but Gordon was already out of the room by the time Lilian had tried to get him back to the kitchen.
She heaved a tired sigh and directed her gaze towards her daughter, "Lilith, can you please prepare another sandwich for your father. He'll be starving by the time we get there."
Lilith had already finished putting the sandwich in the zip lock bag as her mother ended her request, Lilian took the bag and gave Lilian a kiss on the cheek.
"You two just take your time, I'll make sure my husband actually eats something; hopefully he hasn't done anything rash in the short time span he's been alone." She gave a loving smile at the two teenagers and left them to their own devices. The sound of a car starting and driving off was heard as they continued on with their lunch.
Lilith swallowed the piece of food in her mouth and gave Harry a grin, "So, how are you holding up?"
A hum arose from Harry's throat, "Well, I can see that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Lilith gave a small pout and it took every ounce of control Harry had to not gush over how cute she was.
"I mean it's just that your family has been…"
"Odd, strange, really damn weird?"
"Unique."
Harry gave a smile as Lilith blushed a bit. She cleared her throat and drank a bit of water from her glass, "And I love unique, I've had enough of normal."
The memory and living in the same house as the Dursleys had always been a driving force of his hatred of normalcy, at least to what the Dursleys thought normal should have been; which was pretty much everything Harry was not.
"That's good, because it's only going to get stranger from here." A big grin made its way to Lilith's face, "Anyway, we should hurry up. Don't want to keep mom and dad waiting; mostly for my mother's sanity and my father's wellbeing."
They cleaned up the dinner table and put all of the dirty dishes in the sink. Afterwards, they went out to the front of the house and took in the sunlight. Lilith began to mimic the actions of her father by bringing out a familiar piece of string out of her own suit jacket. She loftily held up the end of the string to Harry, who only sighed as, once again, he had to deal with the outcome of yet another journey by magical means. As he tied the string to his finger, his girlfriend gave a playful wink and he felt the familiar feeling of a tug on his navel. The grass left the imprints of their weight as they disappeared.
Harry closed his eyes and firmed himself for another tumble by portkey, but the usual feeling of his butt crashing on the floor never came. He felt a hand holding his and his feet feeling the soft texture of a rug. The boy opened his eyes and saw the bright face of Lilith, "Huh, that's a first."
A snicker made its way to Harry's ears, "Maybe you just needed a little help to stick the landing."
She gave a soft squeeze and Harry reciprocated with one of his own, an affectionate smile accompanying his gaze.
"If that's the case, then I won't mind taking a portkey as long as you're there with me." A slight pause, before Harry donned a frown, "Though flooing will still be a problem."
Lilith let out a gentle laugh and pulled Harry, "Come on, my mom and dad are probably in the office."
As she led him through a corridor, past the floo he had first arrived in, he had taken notice of the strange decor; namely, the motif that corresponded with the family name. The walls were littered with half moon symbols, a clock made to go through the different phases of the moon at different times - which was currently 1 p.m. the clock taking the form of the Waxing Gibbous - and the door that Lilith had led him to was painted to look like the landscape of the moon.
She gave a rap on the door and waited.
"Come in!"
Lilith opened the door and revealed the sitting form of her mother, who was sitting behind a desk, wearing a muggle suit not unlike the one Lilith was currently wearing.
"Good to see you two make it safe and sound. Best give your father a few minutes to himself, he's devouring the sandwich you made." She winked to Lilith, who only gave a small grin. Lilian then gestured to a couple of chairs in front of her, placed beside the walls. They obligingly sat and waited for Gordon to finish filling his stomach. Harry notices that in front of him were a set of couches and comfy chairs; it seemed like it was for clients that had to wait to speak with Lilith's parents.
A few seconds of silence passed, before Lilian broke it with a sing-songy voice, "So~ when did you two meet? I've never heard of Harry before until today."
Lilith spluttered a bit at the sudden inquisition, "Mom! I'll tell you later!"
Her mother was not deterred at the slightest and slid her gaze to Harry, "Oh come on, even Harry is curious."
Harry blushed as Lilith swerved her head to him. Truth be told, he was curious; not on why she had approached him - their first night together still vivid in his mind - but if there was anything else, if there were any ulterior motives other than what she had shared that fateful night.
"Now come on, spill it." Lilith glared at Lilian, who responded back with a cheery grin, then she glanced at Harry, who looked at her with kind eyes. Moments passed before she gave a great big sigh.
"It's not even that interesting." She said with a small pout, trying to stall the inevitable as long as possible. Two pairs of eyes just silently watched her and waited for her to break and start speaking.
"It was in Second Year, when you were rumoured to be the heir of Slytherin. I had gotten interested in the whole affair and decided to investigate what was going on myself. I kept tabs on you to see if you really were the culprit behind the attacks that year, and that opened a whole can of worms." She started to recount the stories that were circling around Hogwarts; the chamber of secrets, the patronus he did in Third Year, being the involuntary fourth champion of the Triwizard Tournament in his fourth. Lilian was completely enraptured with the second hand accounts, whilst Harry was intrigued by how his life had been seen from the outside looking in.
"... And then I heard about him having a cloak that was essentially a true invisibility cloak. So I asked him for his services and here we are."
Lilian's expression was one of amazement and wonder, "Wow, you'd think being married to a wizard would mean you wouldn't be surprised about so many things anymore, but it seems like you're a force of nature yourself, Harry."
A bit of red rushed up to Harry's cheeks, a bashful smile forming on his face, "It wasn't amazing, I had some brilliant friends that helped me along the way."
"Maybe so, but that doesn't mean you are any less amazing." Harry heavily blushed at Lilian's comment. Lilith breathed out a soft laugh and gave him a big smile, which he returned with a bashful smile of his own.
Lilian quietly watched the adorable couple, before raising a question, this time to Harry, "Now, her stories are only second hand, so how about you tell us your versions, Harry?"
With an encouraging nod from Lilith, Harry began recounting his adventures in Hogwarts and added the details that he felt Lilith deserved to know if she were to be at his side; the true fate of Quirrell, the basilisk, Sirius Black and the one hundred dementors, and graveyard duel with Voldemort. By the end of it all Lilith unexpectedly had come close to tears and Lilian as well, with a frown full of anger.
"You're only a minor! And yet you've faced more obstacles than my husband and I have faced in our line of work tenfold." She shut her eyes and tried to calm herself, and when Lilian opened her eyes once again, attempting to keep her temper cooled down.
Lilith on the other hand had no such reservations, her anger at her boyfriend's numerous life-threatening situations rolling off her, "I didn't know it was that bad, and people have the gall to insult you when you're probably deserving of an order of Merlin, more so than the idiots running the magical government nowadays."
Harry didn't know how to react to their outrage, so he tried to alleviate the situation, "It isn't a big deal; anyone would have done the same thing I did if they were put in the same circumstances."
But the older female P.I. was having none of his humility, a trait which only further endeared him to her, "Harry, I speak from experience when I say that; nobody would have gone through the same things as you if they could have helped it. You always willingly put yourself in the line of fire to save people, whether that be a girl from a troll, your friend's sister, your godfather - which I will be looking into - and you even saved the dead body of the boy, Cedric I believe? You saved his body just so that his parents had a body they could bury and properly grieve upon. You may have had help but don't ever think you yourself aren't deserving of praise."
Harry was a bit speechless; years of emotional turmoil had firmly put self-esteem down on the ground. So for someone to say so matter-of-factly how he had been someone who deserved to be lauded for his heroics, not because he was the Boy-who-lived but because he was a good human being, it overwhelmed him. A hand clutched his shoulder in support and he leaned in to the touch, giving an appreciative smile towards Lilith.
A knock then emanated from the door behind Lilian and she gestured to her daughter, "Lilith, your dad is calling for you now. I'll keep Harry company while you speak with your dad about business."
She nodded and surprised both Harry and Lilian with her next action.
She leaned towards Harry and gave him a quick peck on his cheek.
Lilith gave a loving smile at the now beet-red boy and a cheeky one at her mother as she walked past and entered the office of Gordon Moon.
Lilith closed the door behind her with a smile on her face, she loved getting a reaction from Harry. Served him right for always being the smooth one!
But the smile was quickly wiped from her face as she took in the large office, filled with several whiteboards littered with pictures of several people stuck on with tacs and long pieces of red nylon strewn to and fro. It looked like a stereotypical room a detective would have.
Her father sat behind a desk, an aloof and icy exterior put upon his face. If the room was the stereotypical looking office of a private investigator, then Gordon was the quintessential definition of a private investigator; a grey suit with a matching grey long coat draped on the chair he sat on, a pipe in his mouth with smoke billowing every so often, and a glass of whiskey sat atop the table, the glass filled with ice. If anyone had seen him, they would have thought him a man with no space for humour and a stone cold heart.
But Lilith wasn't anyone, and being the daughter of one Gordon Moon gave her the chance to see a side of the man that only his wife and Harry, to an extent, had seen; a sillier side that she loved and she had subconsciously emulated.
"Lilith, I hope you're ready. Your memories may take down a dastardly, villainous, vile human being and bring him to justice. So, I need you to answer every question I put forward as honestly as possible."
Her eyes widened at his tone, maybe her father had finally decided to take this seriously.
"First of all… What the hell was that kiss outside just now?!"
Maybe not…
A/N: Off topic, but I've been watching The Crown on Netflix, and gosh darn it I love Olivia Coleman and Helena Bonham Carter with all my heart! If you haven't seen it and have the means to do so then please do watch it; Claire Foy and Matt Smith for the first two seasons and then Olivia and Helena on the subsequent seasons? Sign me up! Leave some reviews, the supplies are running out and I've already eaten my left leg.