Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any associated characters.

A/N: Welcome to the second chapter of Loopy Lovegood

Lots and lots of introspective and musings in this one, we're still introducing things as it were.

Personal disclaimer:

I do not have any beta readers for this story so spelling and grammatical errors are unavoidable. If you find any, you are very welcome to send me a PM pointing it out.

English isn't my first language, so any corrections on that front are very welcome as well

Chapter 2: The Inn Room

The Time Traveling Three, Harry's room in The Leaky Cauldron

Harry was looking down at his empty plate. He briefly wondered if it was because he was back in the body that had lived on leftovers for ten years, or if it was in his mind since they hadn't eaten the day they had fought Voldemort. Either way he had inhaled his meal rather than just eating it. He looked at the two girls who were still eating. Hermione had abandoned her normal decorum and was shoveling in food much faster than Harry had ever seen, even when she was on a research kick. Luna was eating fast as well, but they had rarely eaten together so he wasn't sure if it was out of the ordinary.

Luna sensed that Harry was starting at her, looking up from her plate and with her mouth full. "wat?" Hermione looked like she was about to chide Luna for talking with her mouth full, but then blushed furiously instead when she noticed that she had been about to do the same.

"I have just eaten a full meal and then some, along with a small pie. I still feel like I could eat more, is this normal?" He looked at Luna.

Luna stopped eating for a moment and waved her hand dismissively in front of her. "Oh yeah, you're going to be crazy hungry for at least a week."

"Probably more for you, since you're so skinny." Hermione chirped as she poked him in the ribs.

"Ow, that wasn't very nice." As he poked her in the side, eliciting a squeal from the girl sitting next to him.

Luna quickly grabbed Hermione's plate, which had gone airborne, as she had jumped a little when she was poked. "Oh get a room you two."

Harry stared at Luna for a moment before flashing a grin. "I thought this was my room." Luna went wide-eyed as she quickly grabbed Harry's plate with her other hand.

"Wha..." Was all Harry managed before he was socked by a pillow to the side of his head toppling him over on the bed, after which Hermione proceeded to beat the stuffing out of him and the pillow in retaliation for poking her.

Luna cleared her throat, causing Hermione to look at her. Looking at the pillow in her hands, looking at Harry curled up into a ball laughing on the bed, then back to looking at Luna who was balancing a plate in her lap and one in each hand. The light voice was coming out in its full dreaming glory. "Got that out of your system?"

Hermione grinned sheepishly at Luna. "Quite. I think I needed that." Given Harry another whack for good measure, before putting the pillow down on the bed and grabbing back her plate to finish off the remaining food. "Haven't really had a lot of laughs this last year and a half. I feel... liberated somehow."

Hermione trailed off, 'liberated, honestly?' She grimaced at the thought. She had always been good at words, spoken and written, but connecting those words to feelings was repeatedly proving difficult. Sometimes having access to a large vocabulary was a curse, stupid long complicated words that made even expressing simple feelings hard.

It had taken her five years to finally move forward with Harry. She had been completely tongue tied about her feelings. It had taken a hug before she finally managed to get her point across. Harry had hugged her exactly three times in the seven years they had known each other. She had hugged him plenty of times when her words had failed her, but he almost never returned the hug, only standing there frozen from the physical contact. The second time she had taken advantage of the hug, and well things had happened. They still hadn't talked about it, and now they might not talk about it at all. With the weirdness of them being children again, it might even take a long time, before she would be comfortable trying something like it again.

It was the first time Harry had hugged her, she had really acknowledged her feelings for him, and she had stuck by his side since then. She had later realized that she had a crush on him after he had been so brave against the troll. It was only after the Basilisk; she admitted to herself, it was more than friendship she had been after. Harry had been devastated and blamed himself for Ron's death; he had been there when she woke up in the hospital wing. Broken from the death of his first friend, mixed with relief to see her again had the boy clutched onto her. They had been crying against each other for over an hour before he finally pulled away.

It had taken five years between the two hugs. Her mind was still lingering the third, the arm around her less than twelve hours earlier. The third hug had been a reflection of the first one, one of grief and consolation.

That was a cheery thought, all the hugs she had managed to drag him into over the seven years.

Classics like "Oh, Harry!" whenever he brought up something about his life with the Dursley's or when he was blaming himself for all the wrong in the world. She was rather proud of that one; it did not require her to try to say something in the increasingly complex sentences her brain would be cooking up to comfort him.

She hugged him when she was sad as well; it worked very well for her. Even if he did not return the hug, the warmth and the closeness to him acted like a balm against anything that had hurt her. Almost anything anyways, but she would rather not dwell on that subject, at all.

She had been upping the ante these last few years, and it had been somewhat successful. He was not tensing up as much anymore, getting him over the aversion to physical contact was grating on her however. She had read that it was often the case for abuse victims, so she did not press the issue and instead just tried to ease him into it. Hermione Jean Granger was nothing if not persistent. For a chance with Harry, her first and best friend to be something more, she would keep on trying.

Disentangling herself from that line of thought for a moment, she looked up at Harry who had just turned back from placing his plate on the nearby table. Harry's eyebrows was furrowed as they wont to do, when he was thinking hard about something.

He smiled a little. "I think I know what you mean Hermione, like a huge weight has been lifted my shoulders. Everyone is alive again. Sirius is in jail, but that is about the only negative thing I can think off right now."

Hermione was a little shaken, not at what Harry had said, but rather that she had managed to think about all that without missing half a conversation. Like it so often happened when her brain took the reins and drove the cart down the road for whatever what caught its attention for a while. Okay, so sometimes, it would drive that cart off a cliff and she would find herself in the library with only five minutes left before the curfew. Fact of the matter was that while she thought quite fast, she normally did not think quite that fast.

One more thing to add to the growing list of questions Hermione was compiling in her head. Now that they were done eating, hopefully Luna could fill her in on some of them.

Harry grabbed Luna's shoulders, then exclaimed in a voice filled with exaggerated terror. "She is smiling, run Luna, save yourself!"

Hermione blinked a few times. "What?"

Harry grinned. "You're smiling that smile you always have on when you descend on a teacher after class with questions."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "I really have a specific expression for that?"

Harry nodded. "You do, if we hadn't looped you could have confirmed it with Professor McGonagall or Professor Vector, since those are the two you torture the most."

That elicited a scowl from her. "Prat."

Luna started laughing as Harry sat down on the bed again. It only took a few seconds before Hermione had the smile back in full force. "These timeloops, do you know how to make them stop?"

Luna just shook her head. "Not besides that it has something to do with Harry and Voldemort."

Hermione frowned for a moment. "So, we don't actually know how to get out of the loops, which means we won't be able to know if a loop is the one that matters. Guess we will have to treat all the loops as the one that counts?" Luna just nodded, before Hermione continued. "We should spend time getting better then. If Voldemort has something to do with it, then we should focus on becoming good enough to beat him without people dying."

Harry smirked. "Trust Hermione to use any excuse to study."

"If we can kill him without people dying, and it still loops. I guess we will have to work another angle. Just hope we're not supposed to redeem him or something like that." Hermione shuddered a little at the last bit.

Luna just nodded; it was refreshing to hear other's thoughts on the subject. Getting through without anyone dying was impossible, at least in her experience and it had not been for lack of trying. It was a good start for a goal, as long as they did not know what would stop the loops.

"Speaking of studying, I noticed something. It's like I'm thinking faster..." Hermione mused aloud with a distant look on her face.

Harry look at her about to say something then closed his mouth again pausing for a moment. "Hmm... You are right Hermione, but it feels more like things are clearer than actually faster."

Luna was grinning at the two. "Took you a while to notice." She was genuinely surprised at how long it had taken both of them. The previous loop had been an interesting one; it was the only one, she had experienced where Ronald had died so early. The result had been interesting to say the least; Harry with his huge interest in all things magical had turned out to be a focused student. Without Ron to drag him down, Harry had instead chosen the same electives as Hermione, and driven by his only friend spent an inordinate time studying.

The two had the highest grade-average of their year on their owls and sixth year scores. Only class they had been beat in was Potions, but that hardly counted. Hermione had the highest grades seen in several decades, and Harry was not very far behind. Harry had actually managed to beat Hermione in History of Magic, his collapse had landed him in the hospital wing and he could take a make-up test at a later date. Hermione had been forced to sit the test, having been distracted by Harry collapsing, missed two points from a perfect score. She had not made any actual errors, but in her haste to turn it in, she had smudged a line at the end. Without doing her usual quadruple check of the test, it had been turned in with the tiny amount unreadable.

The ripples the death of Ron had wrought were simply astounding. It had brought to light just how clever Harry actually was. 'Almost as clever as I am.' Luna mused for a moment, but the effect it had on Hermione was something else. That she had found a peer in Harry besides him being her best friend, had propelled Hermione to show just how frighteningly intelligent she was. Luna had no doubts that if they managed to get out of the timeloops and graduate, Hermione would be the figurehead for some drastic changes to the Magical Britain as a whole, and possibly becoming the greatest spellcrafter seen since the four founders or even Merlin. Assuming she won't go crazy at some point, which was a strong possibility. Luna would be the first to admit that she had a few episodes of what she had come to calling The Lemon and the Gin and Tonic moments over the years. Hopefully, since they were three now, they would keep each other reasonably sane. It was quite hard to pull yourself together after going off into the deep end, and St. Mungo's was a dreary place to spend so many years.

Luna turned her attention back to the two sitting on the bed in front of her. "Well I'm not quite sure what or how, but something about the loops makes your memories much clearer. What I have come up with is that it means your subconscious needs less time to sort things to form conscious thoughts, resulting in things seeming faster."

Hermione looked at the blonde with wide eyes, mouth hanging open a little in shock, spending a few moments before she composed herself. "I-I don't even know where to start, how is that even possible? The brain doesn't work that way at all, I..." Hermione trailed off, pinching the bridge of her nose.

Luna smiled, while looking at the ceiling and in a voice that was slightly more dreaming than normal. "Magic..." She looked at Hermione before continuing. "It's not everything, things you experience in the loop are like normal, things from the previous loops become clear after the loop. Only things you have paid attention to however." Sporting a wide grin, Luna decided to give a demonstration. "Hogwarts: A History, page 216..."

Hermione in wide eyes recited. "Helena, daughter of Rowena Ravenclaw, was rumored to..." she trailed off.

Luna was having trouble not laughing as she could see that Hermione was pouring over the page in her mind. Hermione did not stop until she noticed both Harry and Luna were staring at her, to which she hung her head while giving a sheepish smile at being caught.

Hermione frowned a little, while running through a few other things in her mind to test her new mental prowess. Concluding that it was an incredible boon, if it was not for the fact that the timeloops gave them a chance to save lives and a reason to spend a lot of time with Harry, the ability would be the best result of the timeloops, but as is, it would have to get a third place.

"So, are there any other incredible benefits to these loops?" Hermione looked expectantly at Luna.

"There is one other thing; it seems that your magic gets stronger each time." Luna tilted her head in thought.

"Stronger?" Blurted both Harry and Hermione.

"Yes, it's easier to cast spells and you can cast more of them before becoming exhausted." Luna frowned, for a moment a haunted look flashed in her eyes before snapping back, a half smile on her lips as she continued. "It gets a little stronger each time. How it does, I do not know. It could be that we have more magic available, or that we simply have more experience and cast more efficiently. It might even be a combination of the two, I don't know."

Harry reached for his wand, only to remember that he did not actually have it yet, nor was he supposed aware that he was a wizard at this point in time. Letting out a small sigh as he slumped putting his arms behind him to keep him upright. He wanted to test out this extra strength as soon as possible. Another sigh escaped him as he realized that even with the wand; he was under aged again and could not perform magic outside of Hogwarts. "This is rather frustrating isn't it?"

"Could be worse; imagine waking up after a loop and having to wait over thirteen months before you start in Hogwarts." Just a hint of annoyance had slipped into Luna's voice.

Harry instantly regretting bringing that up, all those loops must have been rather depressing. 'At least she had found a way around it so we can all attend Hogwarts together.' Harry desperately tried to switch topics. "Speaking of waiting, when is Professor McGonagall arriving to your house to inform you that you're a witch?" Looking eagerly at the bushy haired girl next to him.

Hermione looked thoughtful for a moment, the day that she had been told she was a witch had been one of the most monumental days in her life, and one that definitely was committed to her memory. "It is in eight days it seems, the 21st."

"Before your parents know about it, it will probably be hard to spend much time together, but after that it should be doable to spend time at my house for most of the summer." Luna smiled; it seemed like the best solution, there were quite a few things that needed to be sorted out before they started in school in a month and a half.

Hermione looked a little sad at the prospect. "There is also the two weeks I have to spend in Rome." Letting out a small sigh, she really did not want to go to Rome again. It had been a very interesting vacation the first time around, but this time she had seen the sights and honestly, she felt disconnected from the muggle world after seven years as a witch. It was not like with the pureblood families that look down on the muggles, but rather that things were not quite as interesting as magic. She would have to bring a lot of books, grimacing at the thought of the last time where she due to weight limits for the flight were only capable of bringing a single book. It had been Hogwarts: A History of course. She had spent her evenings while her parents were out on the terrace enjoying a bottle of wine, pouring over the book again and again, wanting so desperately to have a place in the world where she fit in.

The first two months of attending Hogwarts had completely crushed her spirit; she had resigned herself to the same existence as she had when she had been attending her private school before the introduction to the magical world.

The train ride, where she had hoped to be able to make friends, had been a bitter disappointment. People had avoided her and she had found herself in a compartment with four others that were completely ignoring her. She had never felt so alone. When Neville had come by the compartment looking for his toad, she had jumped at the chance to help him, in hopes of actually getting a friend. Neville had turned out to be incredibly shy, after they had found the toad; she had tried to talk to him, only to have him bolt with some half-stammered excuse about having to put on his robe.

The hunt for the toad had introduced her to Harry Potter, so it wasn't a complete loss. The boy had unlike everyone else looked at her in wonder. The problem with that was, however, that she had started rambling fast under his gaze. She had excused herself to continue the hunt for the toad, since she was not sure how much longer she could be looked at like that before embarrassing herself. As she had exited the compartment, she heard Ron badmouth her to the boy-who-listened.

It had put her in a bad mood for the rest of the trip. The hat had argued that she had hidden strength and courage. So when the boy-who-listened was sorted into the same house as she was, she became determined to listen to what the hat had said, and use that courage to put herself out there and try to become friends with him.

He had been listening to her on the train, and before they got into the great hall, she noticed he was listening in on her talking about spells with Susan Bones. Of course, during the horcrux hunt they had talked about that, as they had talked about many things in those months, where it had just been the two of them. It had turned out that Harry had been trying to avoid listening to her; not because it was annoying, but she were making him incredibly nervous about the apparent test, that would determine their sorting. So she had spent two months trying to become his friend, her limited experience with social interaction with other children had made it almost impossible, and Ronald was blocking her on every try to make friends.

On Halloween, it had finally been the last straw, she had finally given up, Ron was mean and spiteful and would keep foiling her rather awkward attempts. After running off, came the troll, she almost wished it would just end things right there, herself preservation instincts were much stronger than that feeling, she had been scrambling to get away from it. Suddenly, there he was, the boy-who-listened he was there for her, attacking a troll of all things, just to rescue her. It had steeled her, for him, to become his friend; she would tolerate having to deal with Ron. It had worked too, after the encounter with the possessed professor, Ron had stopped being quite as nasty to her. They had become friends as well, not good friends mind you, but enough that she wasn't imagining throttling him every time he opened that big mouth of his.

Getting back on track with her book problem, she thought about her options. If only she could use her magic, she could shrink all the ones she would want to bring and have them as carry-on. Hermione thought about the bag, she had used for the hunt, it could certainly allow her to bring the sixteen books; she would be able to read in the two weeks. Therefore, to solve her book problem, which she had because she could not use magic, she would just need to use magic...

Hopefully, a solution to the problem would present itself before she had to go on the vacation.

Luna snapped Hermione out of her reverie, it was getting late in the afternoon and it would not be all that long before Hermione would have to go home. It was time to make some plans for the next month and a half before Hogwarts started.

Harry had a meeting with the Headmaster the next day, and then a week left of school before the summer holiday started. Hermione likewise had a week of school left.

They planned to get together again the next day after the visit from the Headmaster, and then things would be too hectic to do anything again before the next Monday. Professor McGonagall would be showing up on a Sunday, and then Hermione would have to spend the entire day dealing with her parents coming to terms with her having magic. Hermione would then try to convince her parents to go to Diagon Alley the following day, where they would meet up to shop. After that, they would try to get together as often as possible at Luna's house. It probably wouldn't be every day, and there was Hermione's trip to Italy, but they could still get a good few days together out of the six week holiday.

Hermione was just glad that her trip wouldn't be until after Harry's birthday. She would have to scheme with her fellow witch about doing something to celebrate.

Harry was going to find Hedwig as soon as they got to Diagon Alley, that way they could keep in contact while Hermione was on her trip.

Xenophilius entered the room. "Okay kids, it's time to get Hermione home."

Luna looked at him. "Daddy, can Hermione come by tomorrow once Dumbledore has taken a look at Harry?" She shot her father a puppy dog look, complete with a small pout and everything. It was almost frightening how efficient that look was, especially how she could make her eyes even wider. Hermione could have sworn that it would not have been physically possible, compared to her normal dreaming stare. Xenophilius of course caved in moments.

"Harry, I would like for you to stay here in the room while I go bring Hermione home, I'm only licensed for side along Apparition for two people." Xenophilius gave Harry a smile as he held out his arms for Luna and Hermione.

Harry flopped back on the bed; he let out a small sigh. It was going to take a while to get used to be treated like a child again. He never experienced what it was like to be an adult in the wizarding world, after he turned seventeen they had been holed up in the burrow, and the rest of the time was spent on the run. There still was quite the difference between being treated like a teenager and a ten year old.

It was strange to have the mind of a teenager in a child's body as well; he wondered what to do about starting at Hogwarts again.

Should he try to become friends with Ron again? His first friend, he was at a bit of a loss on what to do with that. On one hand, it was his first friend, but there was all those negatives speaking against it.

If Ron hadn't become his friend he wouldn't have died in the cave-in. That argument against it was tenuous at best; there was no telling how things would turn out this time around. Luna had mentioned it was the only time; she had experienced Ron dying at that point in time.

There was one big argument against it, Hermione. The evenings and nights spent talking with her in that tent, talking about everything, had made him realized just how horribly she had been treated in the first year. Ron had verbally abused her every chance he got, and Harry had let him. That wouldn't happen this time around, Hermione had turned out to be the most fantastic person he had ever met, he wouldn't trade her for the world.

He decided that the prospect of becoming friends with Ron again would be up to Hermione, how the redhead would treat her. Chances are they would find out on the train.

With whom to become friends with being up in the air, he began wondering what he should do about Malfoy. He would never become friends with that stuck-up prick, but he could try to avoid antagonizing him. He thought back at the first year, together with Ron they had been equally nasty back at the boy. If he tried to avoid confrontations with him, perhaps he could avoid Malfoy declaring him his nemesis and much of what follows.

It would probably be harder than it would seem at first, but the benefits of not having Malfoy hound him, would most likely make up for the work. Perhaps Dumbledore would still be alive by the seventh year. That would certainly change things. It could also result in Dumbledore being killed earlier for all he knew if what Hermione said was true. Perhaps it would be better to focus on the now and worry about everything else when it happened.

Instead, Harry turned his thoughts to the morning's trip to the hospital. The expression on the Healer's face was rather worrying now that he thought about it. It had taken only a couple of minutes to be diagnosed with the concussion and administered the potion. It had still taken twenty minutes afterwards before he was allowed to go.

The Healer had been waving her wand constantly, with a frown that only saw her eyebrows knit more and more as time went by. Finally, she had snapped her eyes upwards to his forehead and Harry could feel the magic put into the diagnostic spellwork that happened there. The Healer had quickly exited the room afterwards and just a few minutes later a trainee had come in and told him he was being released.

At the time, Harry had just assumed that it was because the Healer recognized him, but now he wasn't so sure. There had definitely been something going on. The amount of diagnostic spells that had been casted on him would at least back him on the decision of removal from the Dursley's.

Stiffling a yawn Harry sat up as Luna and Xenophilius entered the room with dinner in hand.

Sitting down around the small table in the room Xenophilius observed his daughter and the boy-who-lived, both devouring their meal as if they hadn't eaten in a decade.

He mused about the moniker the boy had gotten. It was a load of nonsense, the boy-who-lived or the chosen one. Both equally absurd, it was obvious that he was just a normal boy, he was certain there was a rather large Wrackspurt infestation in the Daily Prophet building to come up with that sort of thing. No, Xenophilius knew exactly what Harry was, he was the boy hailed as a savoir and then hidden away from society, and most likely also from really living. It was something he intended to fix.

It was ironic that he would turn out to be the first friend, his daughter had in years, when he caused end of her only other friendship. His little princess had always been playing with the little Ginevra who lived half a mile away. Ottery St. Catchpole was a very small community and Ginevra had been the only other girl her age. As the two girls grew up, they had a falling out, about Harry Potter of all people. Ginevra had been enthralled by the many stories, the publishing companies put out to capitalize on the fame of a person no one had seen in years. Luna had insisted that there was no way the stories could be true when he was the same age as they were. His little princess had always had a good head on her shoulders. Unfortunately, girls of that age were headstrong and the arguments had dissolved into a fight where both had sworn they would never speak to the other again.

Once they had finished eating Xenophilius sat over in a corner to read over some articles for the next issue of the Quibbler to determine which to make the front-page story. Allowing the child to chat the evening away. He frowned a little at how hopeless the wizarding community as a whole was for entertainment, as long as Harry had to stay in the dreary inn, he would at least allow his daughter to be there, spending an entire evening alone would be terribly boring. He often shook his head at the wizarding wireless. A radio as the most modern entertainment, he shook his head at the thought. He was rather proud of the 26 inch television and VCR he had installed in his home, it had been a lot of work to create the spells that would protect the inner electronics from ambient magic, but he had managed it and even created a spell that could provide the needed 230 volts fluctuating fifty times a second. The outlet required a small amount of magic to be replenished once a week, but as a whole, it had been worth the work.

He had often shaken his head at some of the stuff his neighbor had been up to, the man had no idea of how electricity worked, and couldn't even pronounce it correctly. It was Arthur that had gotten him into it, a little over a half year ago Xenophilius had been fighting off a depression from the death of his wife. He had thrown himself into his work with The Quibbler. One afternoon he had been over at the Weasley's place, Arthur had shown him a device he had found, and claimed it showed pictures that moved, just like wizarding photographs. Arthur of course couldn't figure out how it worked, and had given Xenophilius the small 8 inch travel television. Xenophilius was not as naive about the muggle world, and it was a very interesting device, so instead he had gone out into London and purchased a few books on electronics. After creating the spells to run the small television, he decided to buy a proper one and the sales clerk had convinced him he needed a VCR as well.

The trip into muggle London had amused him and he had since taken quite a few stints through the town. One on occasion a passerby had called him a hippie, so he had gone to the library there to look up the word. Surprisingly the description was very fitting, so it had probably been a compliment, which had assured him that his clothing style was quite good for wearing out in the muggle world.

The true joy of the VCR had been when he two months ago bought a trilogy that had just come as a box set the previous year. His princess had been incredibly fascinated by the movies and had found a role model in the female lead with the hair put up in those two buns. She had watched the movies so many times that he feared that he might have to go buy another version of the set before she wore it out.

It was getting late in the evening, Xenoplilius had rented the room next to the one Harry was staying in for him and Luna.

It had been a bit disconcerting to see how the boy had tensed up a little, when Luna had given him a hug as they had bid him a good night. What kind of monsters was that family he had been staying with, when that was the reaction to a hug? Well more arguments for the discussion with the Headmaster in the morrow, was the last thought before he turned in for the night.

A/N: Alright that was chapter two of Loopy Lovegood, hope you lot enjoyed it.

I'm a right bastard by the way, it's going to be a long time before I disclose exactly what happened between the two in the Forest of Dean.

In the previous chapter, Luna and Hermione both referenced a Sci-Fi series. In this chapter, two are referenced in relations to Luna, one of them is kinda obvious but the other isn't quite as much even though it is also pulled from a very popular series. An internet cookie to the one that catches it :)

One guess how Luna managed to end up in Gryffindor in the first place before the loopyness started, in relation to the third last passage.

This chapter was not meant to be a bottle episode like that but it kinda happened. We once more barely have any "real" time covered, but don't worry we're almost done with the introduction to the altered timeline. And then maybe we can get to chapters that actually involve magic.

I've had a few people ask if this is becoming a HP/HG/LL story, so figured I'd just address that here.

Short answer: Maybe

Long answer: It might and it might not, I've planned out a good bit of the story so far, but I haven't planned character interactions at all between the three main characters, since that means I can avoid railroading the story instead of letting it develop naturally. It if is natural that they end up in a polyamorous relationship they will, if it isn't, they won't.

If it does happen it is far off into the future so don't expect anything on that front on this side of 200k words.

Reviews much appreciated, questions about the story are better directed to PM's however.