It was times like these Harry wished he still had hands. He would again soon, but in the meantime if he wanted to pinch the bridge of his nose, it'd take some deft toe-manship to accomplish it. How the hell had he managed to reveal his time traveling nature?

Harry sighed and stood. "Come on, let's go to Dumbledore."

"That's, you—"

Harry ignored him and placed his foot on the boy's back. With a crack they apparated into the Headmaster's office.

"My word!"

Harry winced. Apparently there wasn't going to be any luck for him today. Seated around the office were Professors Slughorn, McGonagall, Flitwick, and Sprout. Slughorn had been the one to exclaim, but the others didn't look any less perturbed.

"Emergency meeting, Uncle." Harry removed his foot from Snape's back. "Sorry to interrupt."

"Harry, you can't just—"

"If you can summon me up out of the blue whilst I was having a good day with my girlfriend to deal with Morgana herself, you can deal with me interrupting your staff meetings to deal with my problems."

Dumbledore's eyes narrowed. "I seem to recall that she was here because of you."

"Yeah, but she was in your office, thus making her your problem." Harry sniffed. "And I dealt with her." Albus frowned and the sound of his knuckles popping cracked out in the air, an exciting but probably unproductive development. "So please, emergency meeting."

"What have you done to my student?" Horace stood. "If you've—"

Harry waved him off, which caught the attention of the teachers, given the state of his limbs. "He's fine, but he's also the reason we're having an emergency. Out with you all. … Please."

Snape coughed as he got to his knees. "You…"

Harry cut him off, "There'll be time to properly sort out blame later, Mr. Snape, for now be silent."

Dumbledore stood and sighed. "We will reconvene this meeting later. Horace, I assure you that despite my nephew's… Proclivities, he is a proper sort, and won't have done anything harmful to a student."

Harry stepped aside to allow them all to pass, bowing his head in what was too grand a gesture to have been taken seriously. He straightened up once they were out of the office and plopped into the seat McGonagall had been sitting in.

"I fucked up. I was trying to impress upon our fledgling Death Eater here that I could handle taking out Tom just fine." Snape stumbled to his feet and backed away until he was against the wall. "I tried some reverse legilimency and accidentally spilled the beans."

"Reverse Legilimency?"

Harry tried to briefly explain what he'd done, and winced at Dumbledore's expression.

"You could've destroyed his mind!"

"But I didn't!" Harry pointed — Hey, he could point now! — at Snape. "He's fine, a bit worse for wear, but fine!"

"He does not look—" Snape cut Dumbledore off by puking. "Fine."

"Well forgive me for not having the most tender of touches with the man who's partially responsible for my parents' death."

"What?" Snape looked at him now, a drop of spittle hanging from the corner of his mouth and eyes wide. "I would never hurt Lily"

"You can and you did." Harry turned back to Dumbledore. "See? He's fine."

"What do you expect me to do?" Albus asked. "I can't just wipe his memory."

"Why not?"

"It's illegal."

"So's what I did, that didn't stop me!"

Dumbledore's glare told Harry exactly what the headmaster thought of his counterpoint. Harry wasn't sure how long it would take The Boy Who Lived to learn the memory wiping charm, but mental spells had never been his strong suit. His occlumency was superb, unless he was being attacked by Merlin, but other than that he hadn't bothered with the stuff. He had enough memories of his own to battle with, let alone other people's.

"Come on, Albus," Harry said. "Just help me out here. I'm trying to keep things on the down-low so that the future doesn't get too off track. I can trust you but there's no way the boy's occlumency is up to the task of fighting off Tom's probes."

"Then we'll just have to trust him not to come near the man." The headmaster's tone had taken on a dangerous edge, and Harry had to fight the urge to challenge him. "You've made this mess, now lie in it."

Snape joined in the conversation by puking once more.

"Would you stop that?" Harry pointed a finger at the mess, still enjoying having the digits functioning once more. "Scourgify."

"I won't tell anyone," Snape said between panting breaths. "I promise. Please, don't—"

"This doesn't involve you," Harry snapped. "You joined the Death Eaters, sicked Voldemort on my parents, then spent the rest of your life torturing children and calling it an excuse to keep your cover as a double agent."

The green in Snape's cheeks faded away to a sickly white pallor, then rose into a shade of crimson. "I would never do anything to hurt Lily!"

"You—"

"ENOUGH!"

Harry jumped to his feet. Magical energy crackled around his hands, a spell formed in his mind. He was going to throw lightning forwards, and immediately begin preparing a shield of water-nearing-ice to protect him from the counter attack. The water would be cooled to such a degree that whatever was launched at him would stimulate the molecules and immediately freeze them, providing him a solid defense at a discounted rate in regards to the magic he spent on it. After that he'd have to play it by ear for what to cast next, depending on what was thrown at him and what was…

Fawkes caught his eye. The phoenix cocked its head at him, and even from several steps away Harry saw his reflection in them. He stopped.

Even at his most dangerous, he'd never fire a spell when there was something behind his target to protect.

He settled back down into his chair and forced the power he'd exerted back into his body. It hurt a bit, like trying to stop a piss after you'd already started, but he managed to reclaim the force and calm himself down. Albus wasn't his enemy. He was safe. Everything was alright. He just needed to calm down.

"Harry?"

"Sorry." Harry bowed his head and had to stop himself from pressing his face against his still-forming hands. "I don't do well with… Exclamations."

The room was silent for a while. Harry took repetitive, deep breaths like Bings had taught him. He tried to remember what else the man had explained to him about cooling off, but right now he was focused on his breaths. After a few moments more, he looked up.

Dumbledore's office was in a disarray. It seemed the magic he'd formed in his hands had done more than just crackle a bit. Snape was fine, if a bit squished with the way he'd pressed himself against a nearby cupboard and the wall. Dumbledore's wands were lying on his desk, well within reaching distance. Papers were scattered about and the unmistakable smell of atmosphere hung heavy in the air.

His hands were the worst part. The fragile extremities were caked in burnt poultice, half of which had flaked off revealing tender and slowly-forming flesh beneath. He tried to flex them, but they had been overexerted and refused to cooperate.

"I might need more potions."

"Are you alright?" Harry glanced up at Dumbledore. "I wasn't expecting that."

"I'll tell you the same thing Luna told Merlin," he said. "I'm a broken man.

"I was born into a wizarding war and, after I turned eleven, I was raised in one." Harry slumped back into his chair. "Everywhere I looked there was Voldemort or some other evil thing waiting to kill me. I'm not able to put down my guard, even now when I'm more than capable of slaying the mad man." It was time to give up the ghost. "If Morgana herself couldn't defeat me, he can't either."

Once more silence reigned. Harry contemplated just leaving at this point. He should just go back to Mexico and have Merlin wash it all away and send him back in time again. Back to another timeline? Either way, this whole world was unraveling around, from his perspective at least, and the last thing he wanted to deal with was a Dumbledore who hated him and a Snape that he'd mentally violated and a group of professors who thought him a freak and—

"Are you alright, Harry?" Dumbledore asked again.

"No."

"Severus, I trust you to keep your silence for the time being." Dumbledore stood. "I promise we won't be wiping your memories any time soon. Do you need any further assistance?"

"No."

"Then please come to my office first thing tomorrow morning."

Snape bowed and left. Harry remained sitting. He didn't bother to acknowledge Dumbledore taking the seat beside him, even as the older man wrapped an arm around his shoulder.

"It's alright, Harry," he said. "What can I do for you?"

"Fight me." That was what he really wanted. "Make me prove myself for the thousandth time."

"To prove yourself?"

"I just want to feel alive."

"More than just fighting can accomplish that, you know." Harry snorted. "Personally I've found great success in heading the education of those who come after me. I know some people who have pursued virtuous and fulfilling careers in wide-ranging or niche pursuits. I—"

"It's not enough."

He'd heard it all before. There was only one thing Harry James Potter had been put on this earth to do, and that was to slay Voldemort. He'd done that, multiple times if you counted the horcrux shades, and yet he still lived. What was the point of it all?

"You can't allow yourself to wallow, Harry."

"What else am I supposed to do?"

Dumbledore sighed. "That's for you to decide. You have to find some other passion though. Something to distract you from all of this."

Harry kept up his 'wallowing'. He didn't want a distraction, he wanted a challenge. What was the point of fighting against boredom and melancholy if he wasn't actually fighting?

"Harry," Albus said. "Look at me. You can't keep this up."

"Yes I can." Harry stood. "I've done so for dozens of years. All I need is to survive, and protect others."

Crack.

Luna was lying in bed. If she hadn't glanced over at him, Harry would've thought she was asleep. He strode over towards their shared bed, then sat down beside her. She sat up herself and wrapped an arm around him.

"Are you alright?"

"Fine." He took a deep breath. "I need a do over."

"Okay, dear." She leaned her head against his. "Can I at least pack this time? I'd hate to lose everything we just bought."

"That's it?" Harry asked. "You're not going to question why? What I did?"

Luna gave him a kiss on his cheek. "I figured I could ask while I was packing, and that you'd appreciate an immediate agreement more. Besides, I trust you enough to not just pop in with the request willy-nilly."

"I accidentally spilled the beans to Snape about who I really am."

"That's it?" Luna furrowed her brow. "I thought you might've accidentally blown up Hogwarts or something."

"Not yet," Harry said. "But if Albus keeps pushing me I might accidentally."

"Is that the real reason you want to go back again? Cus you had a fight with our old Headmaster?"

"Part of it," he admitted. "I just want to get away."

"Okay, dear." She stood. "Let me get packed, and we'll get going."

To her credit, Luna was swift as you please with her packing. Before long everything she and Harry owned was tucked into bags and boxes that he'd purchased alongside the items, and then all of it was stored into a resizable trunk he'd bought in Diagon Alley. She beamed as she handed the miniature box over to him.

"Shall we?"

"We shall."

He took her arm but stopped himself from immediately apparating. "Luna?"

"Yes?"

"I really appreciate you being by my side," he said. "I'm sorry for not recognizing you when we first met."

She placed another kiss on his cheek. "Forgiven and forgotten. Let's get going."

"No, I mean it." He wrapped his arms around her and pulled the witch in for a tight hug. "I really am sorry. I can't imagine all… this without you. Thank you for being here."

She returned the embrace. "Make sure you pick a time when wombles are still around, you got it?"

"I will."

With that, he pulled up the dregs of his magical reservoirs and apparated to the same spot the portkey had taken him originally. The pressure for such a massive teleportation was akin to being in the middle of the earth, but anything less would've left him unsure of whether or not they'd instantly teleported from Great Britain all the way to the dangly bits of Mexico. Harry shook his head, relieved that the hangover from Hell that'd been haunting him had finally subsided, and started rotating his shoulders with a series of pops and cracks which hung heavy in the air.

After a few quick wind-based spells to knock away the dunes, the duo feather-fell once more into the coffin-shaped entrance and into the tunnel. Harry's pulse started to pick up its tempo. He wasn't exactly what a professional would call a 'curse breaker', despite the fact that he was more than capable of breaking every curse and ward he'd come across thus far.

Just because he chose to do it via the magical equivalent of blunt and brute force.

The carvings and etchings along the walls peeled, cracked, and dripped away as he moved forward. Occasionally they'd come across some particularly stubborn series of sigils that refused to just fade away in the wake of the magic he exerted out of every pore, but even those quickly degraded once he started jabbing his wand at them.

God it felt good to have his fingers back, even if they'd lost some progress thanks to his outburst.

When they came across the overgrown fowl who's corpse they'd once floated over, Harry launched into action. The chimera'd cockatrice put up a valiant fight. It seemed it had lost its petrifying gaze, but gained a fiery breath, inexhaustible stamina, and the ability to screech at a decibel that would've shattered most ear drums. Harry almost wished that he'd brought along the sword of Gryfindor to deliver the finishing blow.

From there the wards got a bit… darker. One tried to strip the flesh from his face, and the only thing that saved his self-proclaimed good looks was a mirroring charm he cast which set the stone wall ablaze. Ten or so of the symbols were meant to blast them straight back into the tunnel's entrance and reset the rest. One particularly subtle bit of warding nearly turned Harry around on his heel, and the only thing that saved him was the fact that Luna had been walking a few paces behind him, so she pointed him back into the correct direction.

Before long, they were back in front of the obsidian doors.

"Are you ready?" Harry asked. "Who knows what's in the chamber proper."

"Of course."

It meant a great deal to him that she'd been so brazen and confident in his prowess as they made their way forward. If it had been Ginny accompanying him, Harry doubted he'd've taken ten steps into the tunnel before his now ex-wife cried for mercy and demanded they brought someone else down to face off against the halls.

It felt like a century ago at this point, but just the same as their first venture Harry kicked at the doors. Like last time they swung open and cracked against the walls with the sound of glass that hadn't quite broken, but you couldn't be sure of whether or not it cracked. He glanced about the room.

There was no marble.

"Where is it?" he asked. "Where's the damned stone?!"

Harry stormed into the room. He blew off chunks of the walls, completely disregarding the hieroglyphs and whatnot that scholars would've lost themselves over. He wasn't even wielding his wand but fully fledged spells shot out around him and demolished everything in sight. It took nearly ten minutes before he discovered Luna wasn't beside him, and the door they'd come through had shut.

He didn't chase after her. He'd probably been rather scary just a few seconds ago, so he didn't blame her for being frightened.

There was supposed to be an emergency exit. A way to escape all of this nonsense. Something to reset any mistakes he made as he stumbled across the tightrope of time as he tried to finagle a win against Voldemort without disrupting the past too much. Had Luna known about this? Had Merlin warned her that the marble would disappear after their initial trip? Or was it as unknown to her as it was to him? Why would she have said they had a Get Out of Jail Free card when they didn't? Where the fuck was that ancient bastard Merlin when Harry actually needed him?

"Harry?"

He looked up to see Luna re-enter. Her skin was pale and the gleam of sweat was unmistakable even in what little light they had in the cavern. What really broke his heart was the way her arms were shaking as she approached with them with them held out.

"Are you alright?"

"Why the fuck do people keep asking me that?" he muttered. "Why does it matter if I'm alright or not. We can't go back now."

"Maybe Morgana knows a way. Or maybe you can figure out one of your own. Perhaps we could find a thimbrex and trade them an acorn for—"

"No!" He swung his arm out and away from her, and with it went nearly half the cavern floor in a stalagmite-esque protrusion which formed in the wake of his magic. It slammed into the opposite wall and shook the entire tomb. "There are no thimbles or wombles or nargles or any other nonsense monster you and your crackpot father have come up with. None of them are real. Neither are you or me or anything it's all bullshit.

"Am I alright? No! I'm not! I haven't been since the first time I stepped in to the steaming pile of magical shit that my life turned out to be. I never asked to be the boy who lived. I never asked to be the saviour of the wizarding world. I never asked to have to deal with Voldemort at every fucking chance I could, but here I am! And now that there is no Voldemort or won't be no Vodlemort or whatever the fuck else, I'm just supposed to go back to being some normal, run of the mill wizard who goes about his day like he hasn't been trained like a damned dog with a bell to respond to everything like it's the end of his life."

Harry took a deep breath.

"But I can't. I can't go back. I can never go back to when I was normal. I can't go back to before we were in this shitty timeline. I can't go back."

Broken and battered hands or not, Harry ran his fingers through his hair. His breaths were quick and short, and he could almost feel his heart trying to break out of his chest. The room seemed to be spinning around him.

Luna sat down beside him. When had he sat down? "It's alright, Harry, everything will be alright."

"No it won't."

"It will." Luna pulled him closer and started to stroke his back. "Everything will be alright. Just settle down, dear. Everything will be alright. Everything will be alright."

The only thing that stopped him from lashing out was her closeness. Harry was confident in his magical control, but trying to throw a destructive spell when his girlfriend was latched onto him was a tall order, even when he was mentally stable. He took a long, deep breath through his nose, and released it in a growling hum.

"I'm going to have to deal with this," he said. "I might have to kill Snape."

"You don't have to kill our potions teacher, Harry. So what if he knows? So what if the whole world knows?" Luna took hold of his chin and he allowed her to force him to face her. "You can handle it. Everything will be alright.

"You can't just say in one breath that you're the most powerful wizard in the world and completely incapable of losing, and then whine about some teenager discovering your secret. You're either competent enough to handle the challenges you're facing, or you're not. And in my experience, it's definitely the former when it comes to Harry Potter."

He snorted. "That doesn't make it any easier."

"Easy or not, everything will be alright."

Part of him was annoyed at the repetition. Another part recognized she was trying to form a sense of repetition and familiarity that Dr. Bings had tried to explain was healthy, long ago. A third, final, part wanted to press his lips against hers and not stop.

Harry kissed her.

That last part was always so damn convincing.

He'd expected her to push him off after a moment, but instead she pulled him on top of her. He rolled with the movement until Luna was on top of him. His arms slid around her waist and pulled their bodies together, while hers clutched the threads of his hair tight.

After a few seconds that felt like minutes, Harry pulled away to breathe.

"Everything will be alright," Luna repeated. "Just take some time by yourself, or with me preferably, and settle down."

"With you," he grunted. "Always with you."

"Always."

#

Harry took another long draught from his mug. He was in some Mexican bar that they'd stumbled into, and the locals had been more than happy to take his British pounds in the stead of pesos after he'd multiplied his total a few times. It was a little after nine, which meant it was just three in the morning back home, a perfectly reasonable time to get shitfaced.

Tequila wasn't one of his usual drinks of choice, but he was enjoying the hints of mint buried beneath the beverage's rough cheapness. He'd had some smooth, high quality stuff back in the day, this was practically toilet water in comparison, but it would get him fucked up, and that was all Harry really wanted at the moment.

There were a few other patrons scattered across the bar, but none had given him and his robes more than a passing glance. He wasn't sure if this was a wizarding bar or if the people just couldn't be bothered to give a shit about a strange stranger, but either way it suited him just fine.

"Quieres otro?" the bartender asked.

Harry wasn't quite sure what that meant, but based on the way the man was holding out a bottle, he could pick up the context clues. He held up his empty glass, and the man poured till it was nearly spilling out. Harry caught the falling drops in his mouth, and held up a hand to stop the man from leaving as he drained the rest of the drink. He held out his arm, and the bartender gave him another refill before leaving.

Something about the tequila felt off, but Harry wasn't going to question it. It was probably watered down, but given his desperation, he wasn't in a place to complain. Figuratively or literally. Luna had gone off on some quest of her own, and Harry didn't mind the loneliness. A woman crossed the bar, thinly dressed and swaying as she went.

"Hola—"

"English?" he said, cutting her off. "If not, you're out of luck."

"Come with me," she said. "Cheap."

He waved her off. His hands had fully formed by now, even if they were a bit raw and tender. Snape's work was as high quality as remembered, but even the world's best potion brewer couldn't fix his hands that fast, especially given the abuse he put them through. "If I was that desperate for pussy I'd go somewhere I didn't have to pay for it."

She glared at him. "I am not a whore."

"Could've fooled me." He took another swig. "What the hell would I come with you for then?"

"Fortune." She pulled on his arm. "I tell."

"I'm drinking to forget the past, not the future, even if it is my past." He laughed at his own, completely unintelligible joke. "Off with ya."

Her glare deepened. "Harry Potter. Boy Who Lived. The future you have is important."

Harry coughed. How the hell had she known his real name? He scanned his occlumency defenses; they were standing strong. So unless she was another legend, in disguise this time, there was no way she'd read his mind. The other people in the bar were shooting curious glances their way, but Harry didn't pay them any mind.

"How do you know my name?"

"Is obvious." She tugged on him again. "For me. Come."

This time Harry allowed her to pull him off the barstool. They left and he was ushered through the streets into an old clay-bricked home that was decorated with various herbs and fetishes that left him wondering if perhaps this really was a magical town. Everything about the building screamed 'shamanism', a branch of magic Harry hadn't given much attention to considering it required you to lean on the powers of other beings, and there was no denying the wards they'd crossed or the general 'energy' of it all. Wherever he was, whoever this woman was, this was a place of power.

She guided him to a table set in the middle of it all. A bowl, barely large enough to hold a dip, was in the middle of it and filled with some sort of milky fluid. The woman shoved him into a wooden rocking chair on one side, then settled into a plastic chair opposite of him.

"Fingers in," she said. When Harry hesitated, she kicked his shin under the table. "Fingers in!"

He stuck his fingers into the bowl, and to his relief it didn't burn. He let them rest for a while, it was almost enjoyable to have the cooling sensation considering the fact that his skin had only recently formed, but the woman snapped her fingers at him.

"Out!" She shook her hands like she was about to dry them off. "Shake out!"

Not caring whether or not he got her table dirty, Harry drew his hands up and flicked them out, over and over again. The woman watched the droplets as they landed, nodding along the way even as some slapped her against her face. Before long his digits were mostly dry, and she didn't stop him from wiping his hands against his robes.

"Noreste… Este… Tercero en la fila, cuarto en…"

"What?" Harry asked. "What's that mean?"

"You are—"

The woman was cut short. Her entire body seemed to lock up and her eyes rolled back. Harry made to stand but was forced back into his seat with a magical power that weighed him down like an elephant had been placed onto his shoulders. The various bits and pieces of the eclectic room around him went flying as he exuded his own magical force, but none of it even scratched the omnipresent gravity crushing his body down against his rocking chair and nearly tipping it over.

The woman's mouth opened, but the voice that came out was like granite scraping against metal. "Once before and now again. Death begets death. Breath begets breath. Life begets life. From one end to another. Always before and never again. Turning from one side over to another. Life twice spent and not once lived. Over and over and over again. Fate and destiny and future and existence. All in one, all together, all apart."

The stranger fell back and slumped. Harry cocked his head to the side and his mouth fell open for a moment.

"What the hell was that? There literally wasn't anything even close to sensible in that nonsense, and—"

The woman sprung up. "Out!" she screeched. "Out!"

Harry didn't get the chance to argue, not that he'd want to in the first place, as she practically carried him out of her home. He might've protested at the way she shoved him out the door, he had to catch himself before he faceplanted, but she slammed the door in his wake. The streets were abandoned, and Harry brushed himself off before trying to find his way back to whatever bar he'd bought a tab at, or at least one that had better tequila.

What the hell had that 'prophecy' been about? Weren't those things supposed to rhyme? Or if not, shouldn't there have at least been something resembling sense? And where the hell was the damn bar?

He was fairly certain he'd come within a block or two of the place when Luna discovered him.

"Harry!" she said. "I was looking for you, come on."

Once more he was dragged away by a strange woman, but at least he knew this one. Unlike last time as well, they quickly left the village behind, and Harry wasn't sure if it was his legs or his stomach that would give out first by the time they stopped. He wasn't as drunk as the other day, but running on a stomach with nothing but potions and tequila in it wasn't a fun time. They were in some grassy field with rocks jutting up around them, and the smell of… Something Harry couldn't quite identify, but didn't like, hung heavy in the air. He glanced about.

"Where are we?"

"Come here."

Luna skipped off, and Harry followed after a moment to decide whether or not whatever she wanted to do was worth it. He figured he owed her after his explosion earlier. Whatever it was, it couldn't possibly be worse than having to deal with him in a state like that, but if he could convince her it was one to one it was definitely worth it.

"Look." Luna grabbed him by the ear and jerked his head down to examine a particularly ugly rock. "Look!"

It wasn't a rock. Whatever it was, it was hideous. A few hairs stuck out of its brownish-black flesh, and what he'd first thought was a half-buried series of smaller stones was actually a tail. The thing's eyes were a trio of misshapen, lumpy, easily-mistaken-for-moss growths on the opposite side which wearily blinked at him. Luna released his ear, but Harry leaned in closer, giving the thing a deep sniff, apparently bothering it based on the way the earth rumbled around them afterwards. Whatever this thing was, it could certainly be loud.

"It's a tumaluk," Luna said, pride dripping from her voice. "Go ahead and look them up in any book you please. You won't find them outside the pages of the Quibbler."

"What is it, though? I know you said it's a tuma-whatever, but what is it?"

"It's one of the many magical creatures you said weren't real," Luna said. "That me and my 'crackpot' father just invented to sell papers."

Harry most certainly hadn't added the last part, but he realized what she was getting at. "I'm sorry, Luna," he said. "I didn't mean all of that. I was just…"

He trailed off trying to find an excuse, but Luna didn't give him much room to look. "You did mean it. You think that what I talk about is just nonsense, but it isn't."

"I know that better than anyone." Harry kicked at the dirt, nearly hitting the tumaluk. "You were the one who taught me about thestrals."

"But everyone knows about them." Not everyone knew about them, but Harry knew better than to argue in a time like this. "I don't care about 'everyone' though. I care about you, Harry, and your thoughts and opinions. Hearing you say that my father was… is, a crackpot, hurt me."

Harry took the dagger well, in his opinion, but it did hurt. "I'm sorry."

"I know." Luna sat down and ran a finger along the… spine? Harry wasn't quite sure what part she was stroking on the tumaluk. "But it still hurt. And I still want you to know that we're not crazy. The things we know about aren't just some made up fantasy. You might be willing to just shove it aside and only pretend to go along with what I say, call it some fantasy that my father and I made up, but they're real. All of them are."

Harry swallowed. He wanted to say he was sorry again, and that he knew what she was saying was true, but he wasn't so far gone as to be that stupid. He just had to shut up and take it.

"Whatever sort of disasters you think you've caused in this timeline, we will deal with."

Silence hung around them like a noose. If Luna minded it she didn't show it, and Harry was too scared to disturb it. So far Luna had been the best girlfriend he'd had and he didn't want to lose her. They'd only been dating for nearly two weeks now but every moment felt like it was going to be their last, both because of his battle-fueled paranoia regarding imminent death, and because he was sure that any moment now, whenever now was, he'd screw it up. Throw in the fact that they'd been close friends, well, not immediately before their relationship, but at least in some point in the past, and the feelings developed so much faster.

"I'm sorry, Luna" he allowed at last. "I was angry and said things I shouldn't have. I don't want you to take it offensively, but you're right. I don't believe you about most of the creatures you describe. Seeing them in real life like this helps me build that trust in you."

His eyes widened. "Not that I don't trust you normally," he said. "I just mean in terms of things like this. I more than trust you when it comes to…" He stopped himself from saying 'important things' at the last second. "Matters of life and death and what not, but it's hard for me to believe that everything you say is real actually is.

"But I really am excited to learn about more creatures like the tamaluk and what not." Harry reached out an arm and was relieved when she let him hold her. "Even if only because I want to trust you more. I just need some more evidence."

Once more silence reigned. Luna hadn't pulled away, but she hadn't given any sort of approval to what he'd said either. Harry was starting to sweat when she finally spoke.

"You didn't seem particularly excited to see the wombles."

"That was before I realized I was being stupid." When in doubt, self-deprecation always worked. "I can't tell you that I naturally want to see those things, but now that I see how important it is to you, there's nothing more that I want in the world."

"I see."

Harry wanted to kill the quiet before it began. "I mean it, love, I really do. If you want to abandon the rest of this nonsense, I will. We'll go on a world tour to see the creatures I've only heard of from you and the Quibbler. I'll do anything to make you happy."

"Is that what you care about then?" she asked. "Just making me happy?"

"Yes," he said. "I just want you to make you happy. I'm fucking terrified of losing you Luna. I was scared to accept you, but now I have, and I just want things to work out, because you're pretty and smart and kind and don't mind when I get hurt, so please let me do whatever it is that—"

"Harry." She kissed his cheek, and relief flooded him. "Everything will be alright."

"Everything will be alright," he mirrored. "I'm sorry. I just… Just want things to work out between us. I know in theory there's nothing different about the world around us, it's just the past that's changed, but I can't imagine being with anyone else besides you."

"Harry." She pressed her forehead against his. "I love you."

It felt too fast for him, but he couldn't disagree, even if a scared voice in the back of his mind cried out in protest. "I love you too."