My beta-readers, fredfred and InquisitorCOC, deserve a huge thank you. They helped a lot.
Chapter 44: The Christmas Dinner
Ottery St Mary, Devon, Britain, December 25th, 2005
The two Lunas had chosen to wear the same outfit, a light blue dress with matching low heels. Same hairstyle and jewellery, too, Ron noticed - wizarding Luna must have duplicated Luna's favourite pieces.
"Two Lunas?" Fred exclaimed.
"You had a long-lost twin you never knew?" George was blinking. "That's the big secret?"
Luna winced as she looked at Ron. "Oh… we ruined the big reveal."
"Hermione will be upset," wizarding Luna added.
"I don't think so," Ron said. It must be tedious repeating the same story all the time. On the other hand, she liked showing off magic…
"The big reveal?" Fred asked. "What do you mean?"
"Oh, hello, Luna. And hello, Luna?" Mum must have heard the commotion. Dad was still in the shed.
"Hello, Molly."
"Hello, Mrs Weasely."
"Mum? You already knew?" George frowned.
Mum frowned at him. "Do you think Ron would dare spring such a surprise on me on Christmas?"
That was a good point, Ron had to admit.
"So, the additional guests are her foster family… wait! You're both called Luna?" Fred looked from one of them to the other. "That's… that would be a hell of a coincidence."
"Why? It's a beautiful name," Luna replied.
"And it fits us perfectly," her counterpart added, "don't you think?"
"Wait a minute!" Fred narrowed his eyes at Ron. "Did you set this up? Did you find a double for Luna?"
What?
"I'm Luna, though, in a way, I guess you could say I'm a double of Luna, too," wizarding Luna said.
"Do you really think I would go to such lengths just to get one over on you?" Ron asked.
"Yes." Fred nodded emphatically.
"And Mum's smiling," George pointed out.
"Well, technically, Ron helped to find Luna," Luna told them. "Although so did I. Technically."
Should he reveal the secret? Or drag things out? It was funny to see the twins going spare trying to figure this out… "Well, it's Hermione's story," he said. "We should let her tell it."
"Alright!" the Lunas chorused.
"What? You can't do that! Tell us!" Fred protested.
"Also, how did you manage to sneak into our living room without us noticing?" George asked - rather belatedly, in Ron's opinion.
"We didn't sneak in," wizarding Luna said. "We apparated."
"That's not a word," George retorted.
"I just used it," wizarding Luna told him.
"Just because you don't know a word doesn't mean it doesn't exist," Luna added. "The world would be quite empty if things worked like that."
"Hey!" Fred frowned, though it was close to a pout, too.
Ron grinned - this was very funny indeed.
"Your theory about cloning experiments was true!" Fred pointed at Luna.
"Of course it's true. But Luna's not a clone."
"Rats." Fred sighed and sat down on the couch again. "I'm out of ideas."
"Me too," George said. "Percy, say something! You're a cog in the government machine, aren't you? You should know something."
Percy, who had arrived half an hour ago, looked up from his notebook. "Hm?" Ron wasn't sure if his elder brother really was 'checking a file' or if this was just a ruse to avoid the twins for a while - not that it would have worked without the distraction the presence of two Lunas provided.
"What do you think is the explanation for them!" George pointedly looked at the two women.
"Twins separated at birth?"
"We already thought of that," Fred said.
"Then I can't think of anything." Due to the placement of his notebook on the table, the twins couldn't see Percy's grin as he lowered his head, though Ron could.
It was amusing, but… the others should have started to arrive by now. Ron was getting a little worried. The Russians were still out there, and they had had enough time to make preparations for another attempt - if they dared after the last debacle. Of course, the chance of intercepting people travelling by Apparition was about zero, but Harry, Ginny and Sirius would be travelling by car. A new, better armoured car, fresh from Phoenix Gruppe, but still…
But then he once again heard the sound of someone apparating and saw Hermione standing in the middle of the living room.
"Bloody hell!" "No way!" Fred and George exclaimed - Ron couldn't tell who said what. Even Percy seemed shocked.
"Hermione! We're sorry! We thought dinner would start earlier!" Luna exclaimed.
"We didn't tell them the secret, though," wizarding Luna added.
Hermione looked around. "Oh… alright. I'll go fetch the others, then. I'll be back in a moment!"
And she disappeared - disapparated, Ron corrected himself.
"Your girlfriend built a teleporter!" Fred shouted.
"That's not entirely accurate," Ron told his brother.
"She's an alien?" George gasped.
Before Ron could reply, Hermione reappeared with the first half of the rest of the Grangers. "I'll be right back."
And she was gone again.
Ron eyed the couple in the middle of the living room. It was hard to tell, but… "Good evening, Gabriel, Ellen."
"Good evening, Ron," Gabriel replied. So, Ron had been correct.
Ellen shook her head. "I'll never get used to that."
"You're aliens? Or are you foster-parents to an alien?" Fred went with George's theory.
"What?" Both the Grangers looked confused. "Aliens?"
"You should stop visiting conspiracy theory websites," Luna told the twins. For the life of him, Ron couldn't tell if she was serious or not.
Then Hermione reappeared with the local Grangers.
"Pod people!"
"Aliens!"
"What?" Hermione looked around, then focused on Ron.
He chuckled. "They have a vivid imagination."
She huffed. "Alright. I'm not an alien. I'm a witch," she told the twins and Percy, who had been remarkably quiet so far. She raised her wand. "Let me demonstrate…"
"Not with the china!" Mum interrupted her. "The table's already set."
Hermione blinked, then eyed the small table next to the couch. A wave of her wand later, the newspapers on it had turned into birds and started to fly around.
"And I'm a witch, too!" wizarding Luna added, drawing her wand.
She didn't turn newspapers into birds, though - she turned the small table into a tiger. A huge and very much alive tiger.
"Luna!" Hermione snapped while everyone took a few steps back. Including Ron - he trusted Hermione and wizarding Luna, but… if there was a very large predator standing very close to him, a little distance went a long way.
"What?"
"Don't scare them," Hermione told her while the tiger started hunting the newspaper-birds.
With, in hindsight, predictable results. The living room wasn't made to handle a few hundred pounds of cat jumping around.
On the other hand, Hermione got to demonstrate the Mending Charm. Several times.
Once the living room had been restored and both tiger and birds changed back, she took a deep breath and addressed Ron's three brothers again. "As we have demonstrated, Luna and I are witches. And as you might suspect, we're from a parallel universe. Seven years ago, I was stranded here by accident and mistaken for this world's missing Hermione. Following that..."
"...and that's about it," Hermione finished her story. She didn't look annoyed - well, not at repeating her story.
"So… you created a way to travel to other worlds. With magic." Fred nodded.
"And quantum physics," Hermione corrected him.
"It's a portal," wizarding Luna added. "You just step through and you're in another world."
"Yes, yes." Fred was starting to sound rather annoyed, Ron noticed with no small amount of satisfaction. "And a Russian figuring that out is the reason we've been enjoying the protection of Ronnikin's co-workers."
Ron refrained from pointing out that CI5 wasn't responsible for their protection, not any more, and that he'd also soon have officially quit, too.
"It's a little more complicated than that, but, essentially, yes," Hermione said. "And I'm very sorry about that - it was never my intention to drag you into this situation."
"Yes. You were quite abrasive the first time we met," Ron said with a soft smile.
"Sorry," she told him, smiling as well.
Fred sighed theatrically. "Young love." He cleared his throat. "But now that we've finally been informed about this situation about which everyone else was already in the know…"
"I wasn't," Percy said.
Fred rolled his eyes. "...that almost everyone else already knew about, I have to say…" He trailed off, blinking. "I actually don't know what to say. This is just too fantastical."
To see Fred at a loss for words was another rare occasion.
"Can we go and meet our counterparts?" George asked.
"Capital idea!" Fred agreed at once.
"I'd rather you didn't," Percy told them. "We wouldn't want to start a war with another dimension, now would we?"
"Hey! " Fred put on an affronted air. "It wasn't us who started a war with Russia."
"Officially," Dad cut in, "Russia wasn't involved at all - it was just a conflict between criminal organisations."
"That description certainly fits the Russian government. And ours as well," Luna replied. "Putin's being quite honest for a change."
Ron snorted at that.
"Speaking of Putin," Hermione said, "he's the key to sorting this out and allowing you to lead normal lives."
"Or as normal as your lives get," Ron added.
"As I understand it," Percy commented in a slightly nasal tone, "there's also Her Majesty's Government, who are expecting revolutionary technology from you."
"That, too," Hermione said, wincing.
"Bloody bean counters," Sirius, who had arrived with Harry and Ginny during Hermione's story, mumbled.
"Forget that for a moment - how exactly are you planning to deal with the president of Russia?" George asked.
"Well, we have a few ideas," Hermione replied.
"I wanted to simply use a Disillusionment Charm, apparate next to Putin and use a False Memory Charm to make him think he wanted to call everyone who knows about the portal, then obliviate them as they appear," wizarding Luna said with a pout, "but Hermione claims that wouldn't work."
"A what?" Fred asked.
"A Disillusionment Charm turns you invisible," Ron explained. "Apparition allows you to teleport. A False Memory Charm lets you change someone's memories, and Obliviation is a way to wipe someone's memory. Selectively," he added.
"Blimey." George shook his head, obviously impressed. Then he turned to Fred. "Ronnie's love for D&D finally came in handy. Who'd have thought, huh?"
"Shocking," Fred agreed, shaking his head.
Ron rolled his eyes. D&D was a great game, and he had had a lot of fun in his teenage years playing it.
"But Ron's questionable taste in entertainment aside, why wouldn't that plan work?" Fred asked.
"For several reasons," Hermione replied. "Most importantly, we have to assume that Putin is aware of the threat of invisible or teleporting assailants, even though he might assume that it's a technology I've developed, rather than magic. And that means that he'll have guards prepared for such intruders. Without knowing what we face, apparating into the Kremlin would be a disaster, even with magic at our disposal."
"You were observed using a Disillusionment Charm while you were in Russia." Percy had connected the dots.
"That's not entirely correct," Hermione said, frowning. "I miscalculated the duration of some Shrinking Solution and was captured as a result. Ron saved me, but he was observed returning to his natural size. And while we don't know how much the surviving witness saw and how he interpreted Ron appearing in a locked room, we have to assume the worst: that Putin is prepared for Apparition and Disillusionment Charms, and probably for the Shrinking Solution as well."
"Which complicates matters," Luna said. "Although it'll be a nice trial run for saving the rainforest and other natural habitats under siege by greedy corporations and the corrupt governments they control."
"What?" Percy looked alarmed for the first time this evening. "What do you mean?" he asked, staring at the Lunas. His brother must be very concerned, Ron realised - like his parents, Percy usually politely ignored Luna's political statements during the Weasley Christmas dinner. And on any other occasion, ever since Ron's memorable eighteenth birthday party.
"We'll be saving all the endangered animals in this world by protecting their habitats!" wizarding Luna announced. "We'll have to deal with a lot of muggle leaders for that, though, so this is good training."
"I thought you abandoned the plan to use such charms on muggles in favour of working through the press, Luna!" Hermione exclaimed.
"We did," wizarding Luna replied. "But we never said that we wouldn't also use other means of persuasion."
"'Other means of persuasion'?" Dad looked concerned as well.
"Blackmail," Luna explained with a fierce grin. "We'll ferret out people's darkest secrets, and use that to control them."
"Ah. That's…" Dad looked at a loss for words.
"A remarkably efficient and delightfully ironic plan," George said.
"Yes!" Luna agreed. "Although after Hermione's explanation, it's clear that our current plans will need to be revised."
"You aren't planning to attack Putin, are you?" Mum looked tense. Dad was touching her shoulder - that wasn't a good sign.
"We'll be working closely with Dumbledore," Ron interjected.
"You were working closely with him when you were all almost killed in Russia!" Mum blurted out.
He winced - it seemed that Mum and Dad didn't trust Dumbledore's competence as much as they used to. Or as much as he had thought.
"I didn't have a wand," Hermione interjected. "That is no longer the case. And my wizarding friends will help."
"Some of them, at least," Luna said.
"Oh! Does that include our counterparts?"
Looking at Fred's eager expression, Ron realised that he had found something that was scarier than Luna and wizarding Luna plotting together.
"Ah…" Hermione seemed to share his fear. As did Percy, Ron's parents and Hermione's parents. The other Grangers looked confused, and the Lunas...
...apparently were delighted. "Oh, yes!" wizarding Luna announced with a wide smile. "We all worked together during the war against the Dark Lord! They'll help us against this tyrant, too!"
Luna obviously had started teaching her counterpart her own particular take on politics.
"Enough of these plans for war!" Mum announced. "Dinner's ready. It's Christmas." She frowned at the twins, but also at Ron.
He knew what that meant - they should behave, or else. Which was, while understandable, more than a little unfair - this wasn't Ron's fault!
But everyone else was either a guest and, therefore, exempt, Mum's only daughter and, therefore, spoilt, or Percy.
Though Ron didn't mind being singled out too much - it was Christmas, after all.
And Mum had cooked up a feast.
"But our Daddies aren't here, yet," Luna protested.
"I can fetch them!" wizarding Luna said. She disapparated before anyone could say anything, and reappeared with Xenophon and wizarding Luna's father. Both of the men wore clothes that would've been more at home on an army base, so Ron assumed that Xenophon had loaned his surplus fatigues to Mr Lovegood.
Fortunately, Mum had stopped complaining about what Xenophon called his 'urban guerrilla fashion' long ago, so dinner wasn't marred by another heated discussion.
"So… now that we've enjoyed Mum's cooking, can we talk about how we're supposed to deal with Putin and his army of spies, assassins, soldiers… well, his army, basically?" Fred asked as soon as he had finished his pudding.
"Yes," George added, nodding. "So far, we've mostly heard what we wouldn't be doing."
"You won't be doing anything," Mum said, glaring at the twins. "This is not a joke."
"Oi!" Fred protested. "It's not tennis, either!"
"Hey! I can do more than just play tennis!" Ginny glared at him. "And I've been training for months with the others!"
Which Mum wasn't happy about. At all. Ron studiously avoided looking at her.
The twins, though, had the same expression Ginny had when told she couldn't do something. "We can train as well, then."
"If Ginny can do it, we can do it too."
"I'm a professional athlete. You two are couch potatoes," Ginny retorted. "Even Hermione is in better shape!"
Hermione didn't appreciate the comment, Ron could tell from the way her lips pursed. "As I said, we will have to plan this thoroughly with Dumbledore. We need his information and experience. So any planning done here would be pointless."
"But we could plan how to save the planet," Luna cut in. "We don't need Dumbledore for that. Well, his files about all the dirty secrets of the so-called leaders would help, of course, but they aren't required for most of our targets."
"I have to point out - again - that tampering with foreign and domestic reserves shouldn't be done without a careful evaluation of the possible consequences, both politically and economically," Percy said. "Closing off reserves to human travel would have negative effects on tourism in many countries - a lot of people depend on it."
"And a lot of animals depend on safe habitats!" Luna retorted. "Safe from humans and corporations!"
"Yes!" Wizarding Luna nodded emphatically. "The muggles will just have to find something else to do."
"In many countries, they can't easily 'find something else'," Percy told them. "For far too many people in the developing world, work in the tourism industry is all that keeps them from starving."
"And that is because of the actions of our corporations and corrupt governments," Luna retorted. "Nature shouldn't pay the price for their sins."
"Neither should indigenous people and their families," Hermione pointed out.
"Then we have to fix that, too!" wizarding Luna exclaimed.
"Yes," Luna agreed at once.
"You can't just wave your magic wand and change the world," Percy told them.
"Of course we can. Even a small change is a change to the world," wizarding Luna replied.
"But you're bound to make things worse if you just use magic without any idea of the likely repercussions," Percy snapped. "What happens in foreign countries can have unforeseen consequences in Britain - or anywhere else."
"Reckless magic can have devastating consequences, as you know from History of Magic," Hermione said.
"But we won't be reckless!" wizarding Luna protested.
"And if forcing a corporation to stop exploiting African countries and logging of the rainforest has such drastic consequences, then that still doesn't mean it's wrong to do so - doing the right thing isn't wrong!" Luna huffed.
"But even doing the right thing should be done carefully, and with a good plan," Hermione told them. "First, do no harm."
"Sometimes, you have to cut someone to perform life-saving surgery," Luna retorted.
"Not if you have the right potion or spell," wizarding Luna pointed out, earning herself a frown from both Hermione and Luna.
"You can't let your fear of making a mistake cripple you," Luna went on. "Leaving things to continue as they are would be worse. Not just morally."
Hermione pressed her lips together but nodded in agreement. "Yes. But that doesn't mean you should be hasty."
"Then let's start planning!" Wizarding Luna beamed. "How do you save the animals and their habitats without harming people?"
Mum was glaring at him again, Ron noticed, even though this wasn't his fault at all.
"...and that's why you need tourism: it provides the local population with alternatives to illegal logging or poaching," Percy finished a statement that would have fit Parliament better than the Weasley Christmas dinner.
"There wouldn't be illegal logging without corporations," Luna countered. "Or if people didn't buy wood and other products from illegal plantations built on illegally logged areas. Removing demand works."
"The only way to remove demand is to present a cheaper alternative," Hermione said. "Prohibition and the so-called 'War on Drugs' has proved that. And even if the wood were worthless, the cash crops planted on cleared forests will find buyers."
"But that's exactly why we need to ward the reserves. Nothing else will keep greedy people out of the woods!" Luna told her.
Ron cleared his throat. "We're going in circles. Let's change the subject."
That earned him a glare from Luna, Hermione and Percy. But Mum smiled.
"Anyway," he said, "did I mention that Fred and George's counterparts are married?"
"What?" Fred looked surprised.
"Married?" So did George.
"Oh, yes!" wizarding Luna cut in. "They have the cutest daughter, too! Beatrice."
"Daughter, singular?" Percy asked, raising an eyebrow. Well, Ron should have expected that.
"Yes," wizarding Luna confirmed.
"What?" Mum leaned forward. "How does that work?"
"Both of them married Angelina. Angelina Johnson - well, Angelina Weasley, now."
"That's possible in your world?" Percy asked.
"Apparently they managed it," Hermione commented, "although I don't know how."
"I think they used magical ink on the marriage certificate," wizarding Luna said. "And, somehow, fooled the Ministry's check for that sort of magic."
"Perhaps they used muggle magical ink," Hermione suggested. "I bet the Ministry wouldn't catch that."
"But… if it's not legal, why hasn't your government annulled the marriage?" Percy sounded as if he couldn't believe it.
"The Ministry of Magic has a long tradition of bending or ignoring the law in favour of those in power or those related to them," Hermione said with a frown. "The Weasley family has become very influential in the Ministry following the war against Voldemort."
"Actually, they cannot annul it. Not legally," wizarding Luna remarked. "The Ministry cannot annul a recognised marriage without a petition from an aggrieved party. I think that was the result of a Black's attempt to sabotage a rival family's recent marriages or something."
"But that's…" Percy shook his head while Sirius grinned.
"That's Wizarding Britain for you," Hermione told him.
"Well, as long as they love each other…" Dad said with a smile.
"They aren't the only Weasleys already married," Ron cut in. "Bill's married to Fleur, a French witch. They have a daughter, Victoire. My counterpart married Lavender's counterpart. They have a son, Roger, and another child on the way. And Ginny's counterpart married Harry's counterpart. They have twins, Jean and James."
"Oh!" Mum was smiling widely again. "What about Percy? The other Percy, I mean."
"He's dating Penelope Clearwater," Hermione said.
"Oh! Did you hear that, Percy?"
Percy, their Percy, was frowning, Ron noticed. "Yes, I did. And things are obviously different here. I've never met a woman with that name."
"I could find her, I think," Luna said with a smile.
"Thank you for the offer, but that won't be necessary," Percy replied, "and, more importantly, trying to track down the local counterparts of our counterparts' significant others could endanger operational security."
"Oh, right," Luna agreed.
Ron glanced at Xenophon - this was usually where Luna's father would comment about the government's surveillance and other dirty secrets - but the man was in deep discussion with his counterpart and the Grangers.
Which was sort of worrying, now that Ron thought about it.
"It's obvious that there are significant differences between us and our counterparts," Fred spoke up.
"Indeed," George agreed. "Can you see us married? Or Bill?" he scoffed.
"Yes," wizarding Luna replied earnestly. "Quite easily."
It seemed that the twins didn't have an answer for that.
"Drive safely!" Mum said, waving at Harry, Ginny and Sirius as they got into their car.
"Don't worry, we won't let Ginny drive!" Sirius replied, followed by a "Hey!" from her.
Now only the Grangers - and Ron and Hermione - were left. And Mum and Dad, of course. But Ron and the others would be leaving soon as well - it was almost midnight, after all. He sighed. It had been a nice Christmas dinner. Peaceful, relatively.
"Thank you for having us, Mrs Weasley. It was a wonderful dinner," Hermione said.
"The more, the merrier," Dad told her. "Although, as we heard today, there could've been even more people."
"I hope the boys take this to heart," Mum said. "If their counterparts can marry and have kids, then so can they."
"As Fred and George mentioned, it's not the best time to meet new people," Hermione pointed out. "Not when you're under police protection."
"That didn't stop you," Mum said, smiling at them.
"I think those were extraordinary circumstances," Hermione replied. "But we're working on dealing with this so you can go back to having normal lives."
"As normal as the twins' lives ever are," Ron added with a snort.
"Well, they haven't dated the same girl yet," Dad said.
They actually had during school, or so they had claimed - but the girl supposedly hadn't known that she was dating both of them and not just George. But that wasn't something to tell the parents.
"I would even accept that, as long as they settled down!" Mum exclaimed, then looked surprised at herself.
Everyone smiled at that.
Black Lake, Scotland, Britain, December 25th, 2005
"Good night, Mum, Dad."
"Good night, Gabriel, Ellen."
"Good night, Hermione. Good night, Ron."
"Good night."
The door closed behind the Grangers, and Ron heard Hermione sigh. "Are you tired?" he asked. She had apparated her other set of parents to London before taking Ron and the others back to the laboratory.
"Not physically," she replied. "Just…" She shrugged. "It's been a little more lively than I had expected."
He chuckled. "That's our family for you."
"Yes."
"Didn't the other Weasleys have Christmas dinners?" Ron would have thought they did; they certainly seemed as close-knit, or more so, than his own family.
"The only time I celebrated Christmas with them, we were at Grimmauld Place." She smiled ruefully. "The war had already started, at least for the Order, and we had to deal with casualties. It wasn't a good holiday."
He nodded - he could imagine that. Although… "Even with the twins?"
"They did try to 'liven things up', but even they didn't want to overdo it. Mrs Weasley was very stressed."
"Ah." He nodded. "Mum took a long time to accept that I might get shot at in my line of work." He sighed himself. "So… want to take a walk?"
"And stress MI5's guards?" She raised an eyebrow at him.
"I was thinking about a more private spot."
"Ah." She nodded with a smile. "I think that's a good idea."
They went into their room, and a minute later, stepped out of the tent in the Forest of Dean.
"The spells I left should be keeping people away," Hermione commented - she must have noticed that he had his hand near his gun, Ron realised.
He shrugged. "Never hurts to be cautious."
"The only people who could find this spot are Luna and me."
"The only people we know of," he corrected her.
"Do you think someone managed to slip through the portal?" She cocked her head at him. Probably frowning.
"I think we're better safe than sorry."
She scoffed but didn't contradict him further. "Speaking of Luna… the Lunas." She shook her head. "With all the shared names, we should find a standard terminology. Or define one."
"We could number them? Ron One and Ron Two?" He chuckled at his own joke.
"And who'd be number one?"
"Us, of course," he told her.
"Really. We're from different worlds."
He swallowed the first thought that came to mind - she had no counterpart, so she didn't need a number. "We can have our world adopt you."
It made her laugh. Briefly. Then she sighed. "Back to the Lunas. What are they doing?"
"I have no idea," he replied honestly. "But I know that Luna won't give up her plans. Not when she finally sees a way to achieve some of her goals. And Xenophon will support her."
"Or egg her on." She sighed again. "The vexing thing is, they're not wrong. Not entirely. Something needs to be done about preserving nature. I'm just not sure if they're on the right path."
"I can't see it working. Not with just Luna."
"She said that they're planning to use the press," Hermione pointed out.
That wouldn't be enough, in Ron's opinion. But Luna probably had a plan. And her counterpart did have magic at her disposal. "Well, a press campaign would probably keep them busy for some time."
"Yes." After a few seconds, she added: "Let's walk a little. There's a deer crossing nearby."
Half an hour later, they were back in the clearing. It hadn't been a relaxing stroll - the crossing was too narrow for them to walk next to each other, and Hermione had insisted on taking point since she knew the area from her world's Forest of Dean. Which went against Ron's instincts and training. And the snow didn't make walking any easier, either.
On the other hand, their walk had helped clear his head, and Ron took a few deep breaths once they were back under the open sky. "Ah."
She stepped up next to him, and he felt her arm wrap around his waist.
"Sorry about telling Mum about our counterparts' families, by the way," he said. "I should have realised she'd expect us to marry now."
He felt her shrug. "She wasn't pushy about it."
"Not by her standards, you mean."
She snorted. "She means well. I'm not sure how I'd cope if my children were risking their lives."
He wanted to ask if that meant she was contemplating having children. And marriage - that usually went with having kids, didn't it? But he didn't. That would be pushing things. And he wasn't sure if he wanted kids, anyway. Well, he did, but… not urgently. Or something. He suppressed a snort - that would've given her the wrong impression. "I'm sure you'd handle it well," he said instead, "but I hope they wouldn't risk their lives in the first place."
"We can only hope." He felt her lean into him again, then slide around him into a hug. And a kiss.
It was a good thing they were so close to the tent.
Black Lake, Scotland, Britain, December 26th, 2005
"Good morning. I hope you've had a great Christmas." Dumbledore was all smiles as he greeted them in the recently installed conference room - they hadn't merely rebuilt the damaged parts of the resort, but used the opportunity to remodel. And, Ron would bet, to install better surveillance and security.
Grindelwald, who was also present, nodded curtly. If he had had a great Christmas, it certainly hadn't affected his mood - he was still as grumpy as ever.
'Grumpy Old Men' - Ron had to suppress a grin at the thought. Dumbledore would see the humour, but Ron was sure that Grindelwald wouldn't.
"We enjoyed the Weasley Christmas dinner very much, thank you," Hermione said.
"As you enjoyed spreading top secret information?" Grindelwald asked with a scowl. A scowl that deepened when Luna agreed with a smile.
"Mr Weasley's brothers struck me as very ingenious people; they would certainly have investigated on their own, possibly causing more trouble - after all, they would naturally be curious about the reasons for the protection they are currently receiving," Dumbledore said. "It's better to release information under controlled circumstances than to hope for the best."
Grindelwald scoffed but didn't contradict his partner, which Ron took to mean that the German agreed in his cantankerous way. Luna, of course, nodded emphatically at the notion of releasing information.
"Oh, yes," Sirius, who, with Harry and Ginny, had been fetched by Hermione, nodded as well. "The trouble those two got up to in the past…" He shook his head.
"No worse than you and Dad," Harry muttered.
"We were almost never caught," Sirius retorted, "so I have to insist that they are worse than we ever were."
"But the twins might have done more than you did, which would even things out," Ginny pointed out.
"Do you really think that they would keep their deeds secret instead of bragging?" Sirius shook his head. "No, James and I still remain on top."
"They might need to wait until the statute of limitations has run out," Ginny said.
Ron chuckled at her joke. Well, he hoped that it was a joke.
"If we could start?" Grindelwald said, apparently ignoring Dumbledore's slight frown.
"Of course," Hermione replied at once. "There's a lot to discuss."
"Indeed," Dumbledore agreed. "Four main items, I would say. Our upcoming trip to Magical Prussia, the need to hire a Healer, the Russian problem and Misses Lovegoods' plans to save the planet."
"Travelling to Magical Prussia isn't a problem," Hermione said. "We can fly to Berlin and then enter the Alte Strasse, Berlin's magical quarter."
"Like Diagon Alley, just Prussian," wizarding Luna added.
"Your trip to Diagon Alley caused some trouble," Harry pointed out.
Ron saw Hermione wince at the reminder of their mistake. "That was because I neglected to update my information. That won't happen with this trip."
"I've been there before," wizarding Luna said. "A few years ago."
"You have?" Hermione sounded surprised.
"Oh, yes. It's a lovely place. Although the Prussians have a very intolerant policy towards plants and animals," she added with a frown.
That sounded a little ominous, in Ron's opinion. In Hermione's as well, since she asked: "Ah. Did you have trouble with the authorities?"
"Nothing serious," Luna told her with a smile. "Kingsley got the ban lifted, and the ICW ruled in my favour concerning the threatened habitats of the Prussian Stone Louse." She frowned. "Really, a few buildings are a small price to pay to preserve such cute animals."
"Loriot's Stone Louse is real?" Grindelwald blurted out.
"Who is Loriot?" Luna asked.
"A German comedian Gellert is fond of," Dumbledore explained. "I had the impression his stone louse sketch was fictional myself, but, apparently, it isn't."
"They showed a magical creature on TV? In this world?" Hermione looked flabbergasted.
"It was a cartoon depiction," Dumbledore told her. "But it is peculiar indeed."
"Next you'll tell me Bielefeld is magical," Gellert grumbled.
"Bielefeld doesn't exist," Dumbledore said, with a brief chuckle. "An old joke started ten years ago, I believe."
"It was an attempt to discredit whistleblowers by making fun of conspiracies," Luna said with a scowl. "A well-planned and perpetuated operation of the MAD."
Dumbledore inclined his head with a smile. "I don't know about such an operation, but I don't have as many contacts among my German colleagues as I used to."
Grindelwald was less polite and sneered at Luna, but at least he refrained from voicing his opinion. Luna met his glare with one of her own.
Hermione cleared her throat. "So… what exactly happened in Berlin?"
"I helped create a Stone Louse Reserve," wizarding Luna said. "We have to visit it when we are in the Alte Strasse. It's fascinating how quickly the little cuties can eat through stone and concrete when they aren't threatened with extinction by spells."
"That reserve…" Hermione looked a little queasy. "Would that have been composed of formerly occupied buildings in Berlin?"
"Yes, of course - Prussian Stone Louses prefer dressed stone and concrete to rocks. But the owners were all compensated. I think." Luna shrugged. "As I said, a small price to pay to save a species."
In hindsight, Ron shouldn't be surprised, given her plans for his own world's reserves.
"Let's hope that the Healer we're seeking wasn't living there," Hermione said. "Our chances aren't good to find one in Prussia to begin with. In any case, we'll have to be careful and sound out the local Healers."
"Your friends don't have contacts in Prussia?" Grindelwald asked.
"None that would be able to refer us to a discreet Healer willing to work abroad," she replied.
"The intelligence services of Wizarding Britain seem to be lacking in foreign sources," Dumbledore said.
"There isn't an intelligence service in Wizarding Britain," Hermione said. "Not an official one, at least. And what unofficial sources there are would likely be personal contacts of individual Ministry employees."
"How refreshing - although I would presume continuity of operations will be a problem," Dumbledore commented.
"It's not the only problem the Ministry has," Hermione muttered. "But the magical countries tend to be more insular than the muggle ones. Most international politics is handled by the ICW, which is focused on upholding the Statute of Secrecy and otherwise has a policy of non-intervention."
"I see."
"The war would have been different if we'd had international support. Very different."
"What did the French say?" she asked as soon as Ron had handed over the potions he had brought. His slight hesitation told her enough. "They won't help, will they?"
Ron sighed. "Fleur said her family's sending help."
"But not the Duc."
"No. 'France won't get involved in another country's internal matters'." He wasn't imitating Fleur's accent, but she could hear the Veela's voice anyway.
"Don't they realise that the Dark Lord won't stop with Britain?" She stood after stashing the potions in the trunk and shook her head. "That's exactly how Grindelwald gained enough power to threaten all of Magical Europe - he took a few isolated countries and combined their resources." And recruited heavily among muggleborns, of course. "How can they be so short-sighted?"
Ron shrugged. "Fleur said the Duc fears the precedent it would set. No one wants other countries to intervene in their own internal affairs."
And didn't that paint a lovely picture of the state of Magical Europe? She pressed her lips together. No wonder Dumbledore had prepared safe houses in Britain, and not abroad, for the muggleborns.
"Hey, cheer up," Ron told her with a smile. "We're no worse off than before - and it means the Dark Lord won't get any help, either."
And that said even worse things about the other countries.