Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.

Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. There is also references to food issues & internalized ableism. Oh, and a blink & you miss it reference to eugenics. Feel free to back out if need be.

Author's Note: If no one else was going to help Harry, then Luna would just have to do it herself. Luckily, she gets some allies along the way. Also, head's up: as always Luna & Harry are autistic; the Potters are Desi; and Luna's mother doesn't have a cursed name.

For Emphasis: This fic contains food issues AKA an eating disorder. Specifically, it contains Disordered Eating – Unspecified…which honestly means that we aren't good at remembering to do it or remembering to do it in the right amounts. Yes, this is a real eating disorder. Yes, it can be just as serious as Anorexia Nervosa or Bulimia. No, I will not accept denial of these things. This fic also contains friends being sneaky about helping with it (and touch-starvation), which admittedly skirts consent even if it does help.

Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 12); MC4A
Individual Challenges: Shadow HP Bribery (Y); Gryffindor MC (x3); Ravenclaw MC; Magical MC (x4); Artist MC; Neurodivergent (x3); Rian-Russo Inversion (x2) (Y x1); Ethnic & Present; Lovely Triangle (Y); Setting Sails; Booger Breath; Hold the Mayo; Lunar Era (Y); Old Shoes (Y); Short Jog (Y); Bucket Listing (Y); Two Cakes (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Green Ribbon (Y); Greatest Gift (Y)
House: Slytherin
Assignment No.: Term 12 – Assignment 8
Subject (Task No.): Criminology (Task#1: Write about someone actively working to accomplish a goal.)
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Insane Prompt Challenge [325](Luna Lovegood); Words [88](Epiphany); Herbology [Individual Plot] (Sweet); Pinata [Easy](Poly Ships); All is Ours Day [R02](Romance); Gwen's Candy Shop [Bowl 2](Disordered Eating - Unspecified)(Autistic Luna & Harry); Days of the Year [April 1st](Fred and/or George Weasley); Spring Challenge [02](Melt); Color Prompts [02](Mint); Birthstones [08]("I trust you"); Tarot Cards [01](Leadership); Earth Element [08](Rocky); Hufflepuff Themed Prompts [T04](Patient)
Other MC4A Challenges: SpB [4B](Warmth); TrB [1A](Five Man Band); Hunt [Sp Writing Diversity](Severe/Chronic Allergy); Ship (Lunar Lion /George Weasley)[Sp Medium 1](Acts of Service); Chim (Family/Friendship; Baked Goods)
Representation(s): Harry Potter/Luna Lovegood/George Weasley; Desi & Autistic Harry Potter; Autistic Luna Lovegood
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Found Family; Nontraditional; Zucchini Bread; Machismo; Peddling Pots; Fizzy Lemonade; Second Verse (Ladylike; Not a Lamp; White Dress); Chorus (Odd Feathers; Pocky Pockets; Wabi Sabi); Demo (Nightigale); Demo (In the Trench; Gingersnap)
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: T3 (Tether); SN (Rail; Spare)
Word Count: 1427

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Mission: Biscuit
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Luna understood from nearly the first time she had seen him (during lunch on her first day at Hogwarts) that Harry was like her. She was good at observing people, even when they didn't always make sense. She also knew how to spot others like her, for all that they were relatively rare in the magical world.

(She understood that rarity was not a natural occurrence and had everything to do with the same reason why Squibs were considered rare. Mama and Daddy hadn't told her what reason that was, but Luna had read lots of books in the library in Ottery St. Catchpole. She had a theory of what it could be and why her parents wouldn't want to tell her.)

The thing about being like her was that it meant that sometimes things that everyone else did without any issues were impossible to even attempt. Mama had taught her all kinds of tricks for dealing with those things, which had also helped Daddy after she died. Because she watched Harry from afar for so long, she knew that no one had taught him any tricks. Given how frustrated he seemed whenever something allegedly easy became impossible for him, she wondered if he even realized that it was normal for people like them.

When the Defense Association started, Luna happily accepted the friendships it created. She wasn't really happy with everyone. Hermione was very mean about things she hadn't already read about, and the Weasleys still liked to call her names like they had before Hogwarts. Well, Fred and George didn't, but then they never had joined into Ronald and Ginny's teasing. Neville was very nice—and Luna was delighted to discover that he was like her, too.

Being so close to Harry made Luna realize just how often Harry didn't eat enough or worse, simply didn't eat at all.

Luna didn't think that anyone else noticed. That was fine. She was used to noticing things that most people didn't. It wasn't even the only thing about Harry that other people seemed to miss.

Everyone seemed to miss how often he disappeared to the library or just slipped away to be by himself. Everyone seemed to miss how he didn't care about Quidditch, only about being allowed to fly. Everyone overlooked how he watched everyone's casual touches with longing but couldn't bring himself to even ask for what he obviously wanted.

If no one else noticed, then it was up to her to do something, right?

Luna started by sitting closer to him during meetings of the Defense Association. Harry looked at her like he didn't understand, but when she didn't do the weird eyelashes thing that Ginny did, he seemed to accept her presence. It only took a couple meetings before Harry began leaning closer to her. The first time their shoulders bumped, she was certain that he had forgotten how to breathe.

Fortunately, returning the bump had jolted him out of that frozen state.

That apparently had caught George's attention. Much to the growing annoyance of Ginny, George started taking the space on Harry's other side during meetings, and both the twins started bracketing him during meals. Somehow the Weasley twins managed to convince Neville to start doing during classes. The three Gryffindors also assured her (when they reported like they all shared a secret mission and Luna was somehow their handler—which was so sweet that she had trouble not wiggling her fingers in delight) that they had taken to doing the same closeness when in their common room.

With more people now sharing the effort to give Harry tactile comfort, Luna began planning how to get Harry to eat more. George helped there, too. She would say that Fred also helped but she knew it was George who could get Harry to actually eat the food on his plate during mealtimes. Fred was just better at directing attention away from Harry.

It was during the winter break that Luna had her epiphany. She spent the rest of her time baking her mother's favorite biscuit recipe. Dione had hated the British tradition of putting a red jam in their jammy dodgers. Mostly because she was deathly allergic to red fruit. Instead, she made her own jammy dodgers at home and used blackberry jam. Because Luna's mother was just as awesome as the Titaness whose name she bore, Dione would also pour melted chocolate over the finished products.

…maybe four dozen batches of chocolate-covered blackberry jammy dodgers were a bit much.

Luna found the compartment that Harry was sharing with the Weasley twins easily when the break was done. She was both surprised and not to find Harry tucked into the corner closest to the windows with George right beside him. The pair had been growing closer since this whole project had started, no doubt helped along by how Harry can always tell the twins apart. (She could as well, but most other people seemed to struggle with the task. She didn't understand why they struggled, but she guessed that she didn't have to, did she?) Humming a song that her mother used to sing, she settled down on the compartment floor in front of Harry.

"There's seats, Luna," Harry protested weakly. She tilted her head backwards to see him. "You can't spend the entire train ride down there. It wouldn't be comfortable."

"I know," she said. "If I get uncomfortable, I'll move to either your or George's lap. Jammy dodger?"

She pulled one of the biscuit tins out of her expanded satchel and offered it to him. He only slumped and shook his head. To make matters even worse, he hunched into himself like he was avoiding a blow.

"He doesn't like red things," George said as he took one of the chocolate-covered cookies. He held up to Harry whose light brown skin was darkening in the face. Luna twisted herself to watch better. "Do you trust me?"

Harry swallowed like he had a lump in his throat. Even from her angle on the floor, she could see that his eyes were wide behind his glasses. They were also paler than usual, more of a mint than their normal emerald. It worried her, but not as much as it would have if she didn't know he had spent the break with the twins.

Finally, Harry nodded.

"I trust you," he whispered. The words sounded like they had escaped instead of just being spoken. He reached out to take the cookie only for George to move it out of his reach. Harry's bottom lip trembled with the betrayal that flashed across his face. George didn't let his resolve melt, though, not like Luna would have. He held out the cookie again, this making his intent to feed it to Harry clearer.

For a long moment, no one moved. Even both twins were uncharacteristically still. Then Harry leaned forward and took a bit of the held food. He chewed like a man drinking poison. He swallowed and licked his lips just as cautiously.

"Blackberry?" he asked.

"Mum was allergic to red fruit," Luna answered, "and loved chocolate."

"French?"

"She was Greek," Luna said before realizing that he had probably been talking about the chocolate. "Yeah, it's the best European source for dark chocolate."

George held up the rest of the jammy dodger in his hand. This time Harry didn't hesitate to finish it. Judging by the growing blush on George's cheeks, Harry might have added more tongue to the maneuver than was strictly necessary.

With George feeding him, they managed to get through one of the dozens of cookies by the time Neville found them and Ginny had come back from visiting her boyfriend (she was dating either Michael Corner or Anthony Goldstein, but Luna wasn't in the Ravenclaw common room often enough to remember which). Shortly afterwards, Ron and Hermione arrived from their prefect meeting and then doing their rounds.

When Luna finally got uncomfortable on the floor, just as Harry had predicted she would, she draped herself over Harry and George's laps like she was a giant kneazle. Neither half of the couple seemed to mind. No one in the compartment seemed to notice how Harry hid his face in her neck as he finally lost the tension that had been filling his bony frame when she had arrived.

The year had had a bit of rocky start, but things were finally starting to look brighter.

Especially since George was willing to give her just as many head scritches as he was Harry.