"You need to keep those glasses on." Luna smiled up into her sister's face. "Our house always sees the truth. It isn't easy. If we had time to test your particular flare for it, I would charm a necklace for you. We will have to test you and the children later. We have some wrongs to right."
Hermione nodded. She didn't much care for the glasses, but there was nothing for it. Luna sparkled all the time. Lights danced around her in a bold flickering wash. It was beautiful and distracting.
"Am I seeing auras?" Hermione fussed with the plastic legs of the bright purple frames of her new eye wear. "All the lights around you?"
"Yes, but your sight might be altered in other ways as well." Luna sighed. "The first wash of it is always difficult. My father was convinced he'd gone mad for three months after he married Mum. Familial adoptions used to be fairly common. Your vision will narrow in and become a comfortable and common enough tool. The children will deal with the wide spectrum of it a bit longer. It won't settle in as quickly."
"You said the children. Hugo and Rose?" Hermione started to shake. "They didn't know this was happening."
"I sent Rolf to the school. They'll be in the infirmary until we get there." Luna patted her shoulder. "I planned this out. Trust me. They are my family now, just as you are."
"I know." Hermione nodded. She saw something flit by them out the side of her eye and turned toward it.
"You need to ignore the blibbering humdingers." Luna smirked. "Beyond being cheeky, they're entirely harmless."
"This is all happening so quickly. How can you be so sure this will work?" Hermione pushed her glasses up firmly to the bridge of her nose. "We have some rather unconventional supporters. You are a pureblood now. If they fail to support you, we can call them out."
"Dueling when I can't be sure what I'm seeing?" Hermione gulped.
"You won't have to engage in anything more stressful than laughing at their stupidity." Luna patted her satchel. "We have multiple volunteers to represent our house."
Lucius Malfoy stroked his dragon hide vest. He rarely wore the piece because his chances of being challenged to a duel were so rare, but, on this day, he would stand champion if asked. Preparation was everything.
"You're prepared?" Narcissa stood at his dressing room door. "If it comes to a duel, don't play with the opponent. Those Weasleys are all fast and clever despite your contempt for them."
"I've been informed that the challenge will come from a more annoying direction." Lucius quirked his lips in amusement. "It would appear that our son's future is tied to a woman that likes to cause trouble."
"Scandalous." Narcissa raised her brows and a small giggle escaped her.
"It shall be a trial for us all." Lucius closed the distance between them and pulled his wife close to his chest. "Are you fussing over me, Dearest?"
"A bit." Narcissa tilted her head side to side minutely. "I thought we were done with fighting."
"This will be a simple thing. I am not so weak a wizard that you need to fret." Lucius cupped his wife's chin and kissed her soundly.
pHarry Potter settled himself into his hereditary seat and looked around the room. Luna had insisted that he be in attendance, so he was. He didn't care for the pomp and idiocy of the Wizengamot. It was easy to recuse himself from it most of the time. There were obvious conflicts with his duties as an Auror.
He took a deep breath and nodded to Neville as he sat beside him.
"Gran insisted I attend today. She says it's time I take on more responsibility." Neville shrugged. "Hannah told me that Luna needed to stack the deck a bit. Why can't Gran ever play it straight?"
"The woman has been dealing with this chamber's nonsense for years." Harry grimaced and looked around them. "Anyone would get a bit barmy."
"She'd hex you silly if you said that to her face." Neville chuckled as they watched the seats fill. "There are a lot of faces that don't put in many appearances here. What's going on?"
Harry shrugged and watched as the chamber filled. Every pureblood House was represented. That hadn't happened in years. Only a quorum was required to enact new laws or pass judgement. To see the chamber filled to capacity was shocking. The noise level was high enough that casual conversation ceased.
The dull roar of it all was almost soothing. He took a deep breath and glanced around the room. Everyone was settled and the gallery was full. The air seemed to crackle with all their combined power.
The doors swung open and Luna Lovegood strolled in with Hermione at her side. Harry took a deep breath. The sudden surge of joy in his chest left him smiling.
"I come before you to seek justice for my House." Luna smiled up at the assembled crowd. "My sister, Hermione Jean Granger Lovegood, has been denied her basic rights."
"You're claiming that Granger is your sister?" Demetrius Urquhart smirked and leaned forward in his seat. "She's rather well known to have had muggle parents."
"So did your great great grandmother before her blood adoption. I admit that stealing infants from muggles and leaving transfigured corpses has fallen out of practice, but it was a matter of public record at the time." Luna smirked and spun her wand at the end of her fingers. "I do my research. My House is small. The war left it decimated. Claiming a sister allows it a chance to grow strong again. As a matriarch I declare it. So mote it be."
The echo of her words was loud. Many of the great houses were failing. Houses needed magic. They needed members to feed them. The idea that a willing muggleborn might help them wasn't new, but it had fallen by the wayside. Luna looked around the room and knew that every muggleborn with any skill would be approached soon.
"You expect this august body to accept this?" An all too familiar voice rang out. "You stand before us and demand that we accept this as a fait accompli. This is not acceptable. Your actions are rebellious. The fact that there is no law on the books banning this abuse does not excuse you from adhering to a higher law."
"Higher laws?" Hermione chuckled. "Most would say the highest law is to protect children, yet you tortured us with blood quills. I still carry the scars. Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, Seamus Finnegan, Dean Thomas, Terry Boot, Cho Chang, all carry marks from your handy work. Were you ever tried for your crimes against a higher law?"
"I was doing my job. You were seditious monsters." Dolores Umbridge stuck her chin up in the air. "It is quite obvious to me that you still are."
"We may be monsters, we may be exactly what we were taught to be." Luna smirked and stepped forward. "But, we are clever monsters, brave monsters, and unforgiving monsters. You have two options. Sit down or challenge my House."
"Will House Edgecomb be allowed to challenge your House as well?" Dolores smiled widely. "I do believe you violated that higher law you are so fond of at least once."
"You would be wrong. We were children, and we were not entirely responsible for that incident." Luna grabbed Hermione's hand. "You doomed Marietta Edgecomb to a lifetime of scars by not allowing her access to the infirmary. Hermione had created the cure for those pustules. She'd even told Madam Pomfrey when to use it. She has never put the blame where it deserved to be."
"Challenge us or sit." Hermione glared up at the woman.
"I challenge this abomination." The pink clad witch snarled and started down the stairs to the floor of the chamber.
"House Lovegood accepts this challenge." Luna danced about in a circle. "This is invigorating. Lucius Malfoy stands as our champion by right of blood. He is my father's first cousin."
Harry managed not to snicker when the reality of her new situation hit Madam Umbridge in the face. She blinked, paled, and looked up into the crowd. Lucius Malfoy rose from his seat with all the drama of which he was capable.
"Say what you will about the man, most of it will be true, but you must admit he does know how to make an entrance." Neville snickered. "Do you think he might be willing to give us some pointers. How to command a room and make an evil witch quake in three simple steps."
"I think Luna is the mastermind behind this bit of showmanship." Harry watched as the blonde witch smiled at Hermione. "Umbridge is just the beginning. Luna and Hermione working together should make every single one of us nervous. They'll be unstoppable."
"Brilliant to have Malfoy stand as champion. He's the one that everyone will remember. Most of these men will think he's using them. They'll line up to support his cause." Neville smirked. "It's a damn good thing they like us, Harry, a damn good thing."
Hugo looked up at the ceiling of the infirmary and giggled. He could see trails of magic floating through the air. There was a pulse to it. He licked his lips and blinked. It was still there.
Rolf Scamander smiled at his new nephew. The boy was taking to the Lovegood magic like a hippocampus to water. It was a joy just to sit with him.
"I wonder how much of this will stay with me once the magic settles." Hugo turned his head and blinked slowly. His pupils were blown wide, but he didn't care for the glasses. "Ley lines are beautiful. Magic is alive."
"I don't want this." His niece sounded so distressed. "I just want everything to be the same. I hate these glasses, I want my mother."
Madam Pomfrey emerged from the curtained space and shook her head. Rolf sighed. Rose was plagued by guilt and stubbornly suffering through this change alone.
"Just go in there." Hugo nodded toward the curtains. "She needs someone to tell her it's okay. You're family now. You have to deal with the moody one."
"The poor girl needs someone." Madam Pomfrey frowned back at the curtains. "She's feeling so lost."
"I'll see what I can do." Rolf nodded and patted Hugo on the hand. "Can't be worse than a charging graphorn."
Walking towards the curtained space filled him with dread. He'd much rather trim the claws on a chimaera than face a confused, teenaged witch. Animals, even the most dangerous of beasts, were so much easier to deal with than people. He pushed the curtained screen aside and stepped into the protected space. She was curled in a ball sobbing her heart out.
"Rose." He closed the distance between them in a single stride and pulled her limp form into a gentle embrace. He rocked her and patted her back. There was no point trying to make her talk until she'd cried herself out. He hummed a bit, but he couldn't recall what song the notes were from. He felt helpless and lost. Time had no meaning.
He took a deep breath and suddenly he knew what to say.
"I found my place in this world when I met your Aunt Luna. Before that I spent years doing the things I thought were right. I doubted everything and was always lonely." He leaned his cheek against the crown of his niece's head. "Then there was Luna. The doubts fell away and I knew what kind of wizard I wanted to be. I don't have a lot of those moments. Surety does not come easily to me, but I know I want to be the best uncle I can be for you. I promise that I'll always have time for you and a warm place for you in my heart, a place that's just yours."
Rose clutched him to her and burrowed into his chest. He relaxed and waited out the storm of teenaged emotions. Some things needed a bit of time.