Hermione hurried down the corridor, Harry's golden egg clutched tightly in her arms. She was already late, and running into peeves would be terrible.
She finally made it to the third floor room where Luna had instructed her to come. She muttered the password, hoping that this wouldn't be a waste of time. As much as she liked Luna, the girl did have a tendency to focus on strange things. Like professor Flitwiks thaumoscillicope.
The miniature professor hadn't seemed surprised at all when Luna rushed into the middle of charms club and started asking if she could borrow the machine. Even more strange was the sight they made when they introduced Hermione to the large machine. She wondered how often this sort of thing happened – Flitwik didn't seem fazed at all by the interruption.
The device was massive - the size of a large elephant. Covered in dials, old fashioned valves and pumps. It looked like the insane love child of an enigma machine and a laser - Victorian steampunk hardware connected to a nozzle which wouldn't have looked out of place in one of her fathers star trek scenes. It dwarfed the little man, making him look even smaller than usual, If such a thing were possible.
It turned out that the machine had been built by the boyfriend of a muggle-born student, an engineer, who had used it to analyze runes. Theoretically, by using the machine on the egg, they would be able to find out what runes had been used on the egg, and thus what spells it was under. The actual explanation by the Professor was a lot longer and made far less sense. Sometimes Hermione really regretted missing out on a muggle education.
Luna had talked enthusiastically about the machine, how it did what it did and why. Eventually she had been sent off to collect Harry and his golden egg. When she had told Harry that the machine would analyze the runes based of a fourier reverse transformation theory, he had handed her the egg and gone back to sleep.
The results of the experiment led to her bringing the egg to this room, an hour after curfew. For some reason.
She sighed.
Sometimes, she wished that Luna would be a bit more logical. Sometimes. But mostly she just wanted to laugh at whatever it was the blond had done this time.
"Pine fresh" she muttered.
The door opened at the password, revealing -
A bathroom.
Hermione's jaw dropped.
Scratch that, this was a swimming pool. It was so ridiculously opulent that she couldn't believe it. Who on earth would build a swimming pool with hundreds of gold plated taps?
More to the point, who would decide to fill the pool with giant pink rabbit shaped bubbles?
"Hermione!"
Stupid question, really. Hermione jumped, as Luna emerged from the foam.
"Luna - "
Whatever Hermione was going to say was driven from her mind when Luna was completely revealed. She was wearing a small bathing suit, one which clung to her hips and drew Hermiones gaze like a moth to the flame. In years to come, when Harry would ask the students of the DA to think of a happy memory for a patronus, *This* is what she would think of.
"Did you bring the egg?" Luna asked eagerly.
Hermione snapped out of her daze. Wordlessly, she handed the egg to Luna, who grinned and took it under her arm.
"Come on!"
Luna turned and walked into the pool, her hips swaying hypnotically. With an unexpected dive, she entered the water, still carrying the egg.
Hermione was speechless. She was in trouble.
She heard the sound of someone breaking the surface of the water, but they were obscured by the bubbles and bunny shaped foam.
"Hermione" Luna whined "Come on in!"
"I.. I don't have a uh, anything to wear" Hermione said, regretting coming. Sort of.
Luna muttered an incantation and the bunny bubbles departed, revealing Luna once again.
"Tosh." Said Luna decisively. She waved her wand again and suddenly Hermione was standing in a white bikini.
"LUNA!" Hermione yelled. Luna just looked pleased, though one could also describe her expression as being appreciative. Of her handiwork with spells or with Hermiones exposed body, we'll never know.
"Change my clothes back!". Hermione begged, turning to hide her cleavage and the blush spreading down her chest.
"No."
"Yes!"
"No."
Hermione sighed. This was the most frustrating part of dealing with Luna. She was just so incredibly stubborn when she thought she was right, and she seldom explained herself if she didn't feel like it.
She snuck a look at Luna, the water failing to hide the curves of her chest. Make that the second most frustrating thing about Luna, she decided.
Then she noticed the slightly glazed look on the swimming girls face.
"Um, Luna." She asked, trying to distract the girl before her blush grew any more pronounced. "Is there something on my butt?"
"Yes" Luna replied immediately, not moving her gaze at all.
Hermione turned, and tried to look at her own bottom. Eventually, after a lot of twisting and turning, she discovered a picture of a crumple horned snorlac on the back of her bikini bottoms.
"Oh."
She turned to face a blushing Luna, and realised that her twisting and turning must have provided quite a show for the other girl. Hermione hurriedly entered the water before she could embarrass herself any more.
The water was still warm, and comfortable as she lowered herself in. The bubbles began to return, and she drifted over to where Luna was sitting with the egg. She took a seat on the underwater ledge – but no to close to the other girl.
Luna swam over, sitting herself right next to Hermione.
"So..." The blond began, the warm air brushing past Hermiones ear and making her shiver. "Have you decided what your animagus form will be yet?"
Hermione didn't trust herself to open her mouth, so she just shook her head.
"No thoughts about it?" Luna continued, sounding bemused.
Hermione didn't seem to have any thoughts at all, unless they concentrated on how intimate it was to be in a bath with Luna Lovegood.
She tried to compose herself, and managed to rally enough to string together a sentence.
"I've thought about becoming a – ah – something – ah – small."
God damn it was hard to concentrate with such a beauty breathing down her neck!
Luna nodded, and blessedly put a few inches between them.
"I guess you're thinking of a crumple horned snorlac" Hermione joked, trying to relieve the tension.
"Oh no. Crumple horned snorlacs would be a very bad idea." Luna said decisively. " They don't like areas with a build up of magic. It's a defence mechanism."
"Defence mechanism? How would not liking magic help?"
"Because where there is magic, there're people. And people like hunting small helpless animals. It's hard enough to turn into an animal without having to fight for control with the animals instincts."
"I always thought that the animals instincts went away when you transformed."
Luna shook her head. "Heavens no. If they did, how would you know how to move the animals body? It's not yours, and you don't know how to use it properly."
Hermione had ran out of things to discuss. The only option was to gaze at Luna ( Which she secretly enjoyed ) or to figure out what kind of animal she wanted to become. But there were so many things to consider!
"What would you look for, in an animal?" She asked, curiously.
"Oh, I'm going to be a wolf." Luna said dreamily. Hermione had been quite concerned with her friend until she had noticed that she only became dreamy when she was thinking about her mother.
"I have a pet wolf, called Grimmy." She explained.
Hermione sighed. That was typical of Luna, but she supposed the animal was a good choice. Wolves were pack animals, and Luna craved the support of her friends. Friend, she mentally corrected.
She couldn't allow her confusion over her feelings to interfere with their friendship. She had seen what Luna looked like when she thought that Hermione had left her, and it wasn't something she wanted to do again.
Besides, what was wrong with being a wolf?
They were smart, fast and dangerous, without being so dangerous as to be shot on sight. They could pretend to be dogs, and nobody would look twice if they seemed friendly.
Plus, a little voice in the back of her head added, she could spend more time with Luna. She squashed the voice out of existence, pretending it had never existed.
"I think a wolf would be a good idea" Hermione stated.
Luna smiled.
"Now that we've got that worked out, it's time to start on this egg. Come on."
She pushed the egg under the surface of the water and opened it. Hermione watched, confused as usual, as Luna immersed her head into the water. After a while, she returned to the surface.
"Well?" Hermione asked.
Luna took her shoulder, and together they slipped into the water to hear the clue.
A/N:
Well, another chapter! And it only took 6 weeks! I like to pretend my work is aged, like fine wine. So it must be 5 weeks better that it would have been if I posted when I had planned.
I have chosen to make the animagus characters both wolves, because they're not to exotic, or crazy. This isn't a superhero fic after all. Wolves are pretty normal.
I borrowed the idea for Grimmy from Luckner, who's written a few good HP/LL stories. I like it. It fits with my version of Luna.
+extra thanks for everyone who reviewed! I 3 you all!