Thank you guys for the continued interest in this story. See I'm getting better about updating already!

It was late when the slamming door indicated Harry had finally arrived home. Luna looked up from her place on the couch and smiled at his entrance.

"Hello, Harry. I was just having a glass of wine. Would you care to join me?"

Harry didn't return her smile, he barely acknowledged her presence. She watched him cross the room without ceremony and pause at the small cart in the corner, fixing himself something a little stronger than she was drinking.

"You're home late," Luna commented. With a frown she placed her drink on the table next to her and folded the book in her lap closed.

"Sorry," Harry murmured.

"Where were you?"

Harry gave her a sideways glance and took a long gulp from the glass in his hand.

"The Burrow."

It took a moment for the information to register, but when it did Luna's eyes grew wide, and her mouth went dry.

"Harry tell me you didn't."

"You know what Luna, I don't owe you any explanation!" Harry shouted at her, rage suddenly filling his expression. "Hermione did a terrible, terrible thing and Ron is my friend! He deserved to know the truth!"

"A week ago you would've still called Hermione your friend too!" Luna yelled back with uncharacteristic anger. "She didn't do anything to you, remember? You just wanted her to be safe! You just hoped she was somewhere living her life! You just hoped she'd come home some day and things could go back to normal!"

"Life is never going to be like that again, Luna! She's ruined it." Harry turned his back on her as if this ended the discussion, but Luna wasn't having any of it.

"All she's done is made the best of a bad situation. She did what she thought was best for her son - her son Harry. You of all people should understand that, how far a mother will go to protect - "

"Don't," Harry warned, his tone dangerous. "Dont you dare. It's not the same thing."

"How?" Luna demanded. "Giving up her life so that he could have one? How is it any different? Sam would not have survived in this world Harry, not as it was when Hermione left. Things have changed but she hasn't had the opportunity to see that. It's rubbish and I hope she comes back, but it's none of your business, and it was certainly not your place to tell Ron anything!"

"He has a son. He deserves to know. She never should've kept it from him."

Luna sighed. "So what happens now?"

Harry shrugged. "He's sleeping on it. He's not telling the family yet, but he might want to go find them. To talk to her, to meet Sam."

"Oh Harry," Luna shook her head sadly. "Harry I don't think you have any idea what you've done. I know you only meant well but...I don't think this is as much Ron's business as you seem to think it is."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I just mean that you are jumping to some serious conclusions."

Harry didn't understand, that much was obvious. But he also didn't seem to have any desire to. He looked at Luna like a traitor, as though her loyalty to her friend was an insult to him personally. Loyalty - that's all he was trying to show Ron. Why couldn't she understand that? Why wasn't she on his side? What was the point of her if she wasn't on his side?

"I think you should stay at your place tonight, Luna."

Luna looked hurt, but nodded her understanding. Harry watched her walk over and take a small framed picture of them off the mantle. She stuck it in her purse, and while confused, he had no desire to stop her. It wasn't really a picture he'd want staring him in the face tonight anyway. With her token claimed, Luna walked wordlessly out the front door, and Harry heard the crack! as she apparated off the doorstep.

Hours passed before Hermione finally lifted Sam off the floor and carried him to his own bed. She stood for a long moment after she had pulled the covers up over his shoulders, watching his steady breathing. Right here, right now, he was safe. There were no questions, no secrets, just a mother watching over her son as he slept.

Sam shifted uncomfortably in his sleep and the book on his bedside table flipped open. Hermione jumped, but then smiled. It was a book that Sam was probably too old for now, but he kept it close to him, because it was still his favorite thing to hear his mother read aloud. Hermione sat down on the bed, pulled the book into her lap, and ran her hand through her sleeping boy's hair as she read softly to him.

In the great green room, there is a telephone and a red balloon, and a picture of The cow jumping over the moon...

Later, Hermione went back into the living room and bent down to pick up the mess that was on the floor. A small pile of bills that had been knocked off the coffee table when the apparated in, the chocolately sundae spoon Sam had been clutching, and her wand, which she had dropped as soon as they were safely home.

She ignored the other clutter and picked up the knotted wooden rod off the ground. A tingle went up her arm at the contact. Ever since Sam had started doing accidental magic, Hermione had felt it necessary to keep her wand close by, in case something happened - well something like what had happened in the diner today. However, until today she hadn't actually had cause to use it.

Hermione spent a long time staring at the wooden artifact, fingering the ridges and rivets, experimentally closing her fist around it, remembering how it felt to weild it in battle, remembering how it felt to use complex charms to outshine her classmates. Quietly she whispered, Wingardium Leviosa, and the papers around her floated off the ground. A girlish giggle broke out of her, and Hermione smiled like she hadn't smiled in years. There was a longing in her, to cast spells, to scream incantations, to fill the world with magic.

A longing, she realized, Sam must feel too. Even if he didn't recognize it yet.

Luna woke the next morning, confused as to where she was. "Her place" was actually the attic of her father's house, which he had remodeled to make her more comfortable and give her some privacy after she left Hogwarts. She rarely slept here though, and she had grown quite accustomed to waking up in Harry's king sized bed, not her tiny one, and certainly not alone. She quietly thanked whoever decided such things that her father was out of town this weekend - she hated having to explain her fights with Harry to him.

It wasn't usually a problem though, her fights with Harry were fairly few and far between. This had been a bad one though. Normally if she slept at home, an owl would be waiting on her windowsill the next morning with some kind of peace offering from Harry in it's beak. But there was no bird today. Harry didn't want to talk to her. He didn't want to make up.

Luna was determined not to cry. She pulled herself out of bed like it was any other day and picked through the meager amount of clothing she had at this residence, trying to piece together a decent outfit.

The late morning found Luna sitting on her bed, leafing through the Daily Prophet and sipping a cup of tea. A certain sadness was weighing on her shoulders, but she was determined not to let it crush her. As much as she loved Harry, and understood his emotional state, she could not turn her back on Hermione so soon after finding her again. Much less could she turn her back on Sam. She had developed a fast bound with the young Granger, and couldn't break the instinct to help Hermione protect him. Harry would just have to come second.

"Oi there!"

Luna's own voice startled her out of her deep reverie. She looked at the nightstand where her photographic counterpart was jumping around and waving for her attention.

"Hey! Hermione's looking for you! She wants you to go to her flat! But requests you apparate outside so you don't scare Sam."

"Oh, grand, all right." Luna noticed Harry was not standing in the frame next to her but chose not to comment. "Tell her I'll be right over."

The shrill of the kettle boiling pierced the silence that had previously filled Hermione's kitchen. Luna watched her friend get up to make the tea and nibbled on a chocolate chip cookie. It had been twenty minutes since she arrived and Hermione had barely said a word.

"Not that tea and cookies isn't lovely," Luna said finally. "But why am I here?"

Hermione sat down with two teacups and let out a shaky sigh. "Because you were right, Luna."

Luna cocked her head to the side, not understanding, and Hermione continued. "Sam is my life, you have to understand. I thought I was doing right by him. But yesterday I realized how much it's affecting him...not only the magic, but not knowing his father. He's a boy, after all. I thought I was enough, but that was foolish. I know me and Charlie were never...well there's certainly not a whole lot of history there, and he doesn't owe me anything. But he's a good man, and they should know each other."

Luna blew on her tea to cool it and then set it back down. "So he is Charlie's son."

"You know he is."

"Well..." Luna breathed deeply before continuing. "Hermione, Harry went to the Burrow last night. He told Ron everything. He also told Ron that ... Sam was his. Ron thinks you're hiding his son from him."

Hermione nodded. "Well then, all the more reason."

"We can go to the Burrow today if you like. I'm not doing anything. I'm happy to be there for you."

"Thank you," Hermione whispered. "But one thing first. Before we take Sam into this strange new place, to meet family he didn't know he had, and to see things he's never seen before...we need to tell him. That he has magic. That he's special."

Luna smiled softly. "I can be here for that, too."

R&R :) I know this is a more domestic story, I hope that doesn't translate as boring. I am having fun writing it so I hope you enjoy reading it.