14. Critical Conversations

"Hullo, Harry Potter."

Harry looked Luna up and down slowly before releasing a barely audible sigh and waving at her. Luna looked remarkably similar to how he was used to her appearing, with her wand tucked behind her ear - how she had one already at her age, though, was a mystery to him - and pale blonde hair. It made him wonder, then, why the Luna in his dream had strawberry blonde hair. Perhaps she'd take to using cosmetic charms for vanity's sake down the road? Then again, there was nothing to say the dream was prophetic and Luna was supposed to have anything other than blonde hair, despite the whole Hermione and Jasmine thing, so he decided to put that out of his mind for the time being. Struggling to his feet, he brushed himself off before smiling. "Luna Lovegood, I presume?"

Shaking her head, the blonde pointed over at the doorway. "No, I'm her identical twin sister, Soleil Shagwell. She's older and so she gets to bear Daddy's last name, while I'm going to make my husband take my name when we get married so I can continue Mummy's family line." So wait, Luna's mother's maiden name had been Selene Shagwell? Wow. That was even worse than Lovegood when it came to bad innuendo fodder. "Anyways, Luna's still upstairs prettying herself up for you. She's quite excited to be meeting you in person for the first time." Harry looked over at where Soleil was pointing and waited… and waited… and waited. When he heard another round of soft giggles, he knew he'd been had. "Oh, that was really quite amusing. No, I'm Luna. What's the matter, Harry? Am I not to your liking, that you're so eager to dismiss me?"

Oh, that was dangerous territory and Harry knew it. It was like when Ginny asked him if a certain pair of robes made her look fat, or if the muggle jeans she'd bought on a trip out with Hermione made her arse look big. He was well trained by now: any appearance-related question from a woman was to be answered with as many lies as necessary to preserve one's manhood.

The problem was, Luna was spectacularly good at telling when he was lying… or at least the one he was familiar with was. That and she looked just as bizarre as he was used to. Actually, she was a bit better than in his home universe, he realized after a second, more thorough inspection. Her entire outfit was shades of blue, from a dark blue cardigan to a paler blue shirt beneath and matching ankle-length skirt. The butterbeer cork necklace and radish earrings were gone too, amazingly enough. While he hadn't liked that she'd taken them off for Slughorn's party since they were a part of who she was, they weren't a part of this Luna evidently and he had no problem admitting she was better for it.

Luna coughed and Harry blushed as he realized that he'd probably been standing there doing a fair impression of Crabbe for at least a minute. "Erm, there's nothing wrong with you, Luna. But my younger sisters are twins, you know. I know how grumpy girls can get when you pay attention to the wrong twin. I didn't want to get off on the wrong foot with someone who sent me a marriage contract. Seems like I managed that anyways, though."

"You have a left foot and a right foot, Harry. You have no wrong foot to get off on… and I'm not entirely sure what you'd be getting off of, even if you did." Luna considered that for a moment longer before shrugging and rising from the chair she'd dragged in front of the fireplace. "At any rate, we have things to discuss."

Blinking, Harry looked around in search of Oddment Lovegood's distinctive shock of pale blonde hair, rather reminiscent of the pictures of Albert Einstein he'd seen in primary school. "We do? Not that I think you're property or don't matter in this situation, Luna, but isn't the negotiation generally between either the two fathers or the bride-to-be's father and the prospective husband?"

Luna just waved her hand dismissively before grabbing his, leading him from the kitchen to the sitting room, where a plate of biscuits and some milk was waiting for them on a table in front of a couch that appeared to have been tie-dyed at some point. "It'd be a bit awkward for you to meet with my father, considering he doesn't know what he signed for me was what it was."

"Wait a minute… what?"

Sighing, Luna rolled her eyes as she forced Harry to sit down on the couch, taking a seat next to him. "Well I didn't think he'd agree to it if I told him what I was going to do. So I waited until he was busy working on _The Quibbler_, then brought it in and told him it was something Mummy needed signed for Gringotts. It looked so official that he didn't even blink before signing where I pointed. And voila. One marriage contract, ready to send. And we have plenty of owls, so the sending itself was easy."

Harry tried to wrap his brain around that one. A ten year-old girl was conspiring to marry him and tricking her father into going along with it. It boggled the mind. Even for someone used to dealing with Luna. Wanting to buy himself some more time, he held out the present he'd bought for her. "I got you something for Christmas."

"Oh! Thank you! I didn't get you anything… although I'm supposedly trying to give you myself, so I suppose that counts for something." Luna took the wrapped book from him and carefully removed the ribbon followed by the wrapping paper, laying each on the table and smoothing them out before examining her new possession. "_Comma Sutra: Position Yourself for Success With Good Grammar._" Luna opened the book and flipped through the first two or three pages until she landed on the table of contents. "Assume the Position: Nouns, Pronouns, and Verbs. Bondage 101: Conjunctions. Four Play: Four Common Grammar Headaches. Sex and the Single Sentence." Grinning, Luna looked up over the top of the book at him. "How delightfully witty, Harry. Thank you!"

Harry waved off the thank you, blushing a bit. "Honestly, I'm a little surprised you get the references. I thought it was just something you'd appreciate as a writing tool for now, and you'd smirk a bit when you get older. I mean, you're a bit young for that, aren't you?"

"You understood the references and bought it for me. Aren't you a bit young for that too?" Touché. Luna twisted to kneel on the couch and held one arm out over the back. "Melvil. Kama Sutra, please." Harry turned and watched as the bookshelf shuddered, an arm emerging from the side and grabbing one book off the middle shelf, tossing it through the air to Luna. "Thank you, Melvil." Plunking herself down again, Luna held it out to Harry. "It's quite an interesting read. There are five chapters on the acquisition of a wife, and even a chapter on how the chief wife should behave compared to the lesser wives in a polygamous marriage."

Eyeing the book like a particularly poisonous snake - or worse, given he could talk a snake out of biting him - Harry cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Doesn't that have all of the positions for… you know… in it too?" The idea of a ten year-old reading a book like that often enough to recite facts about its contents was bloody frightening and more than a little disturbing from a social perspective. He knew his mother would have a kneazle if she found him with something like that, much less Jasmine or Rose.

Luna nodded, flipping the book open and running her finger down the page before coming to a certain passage. "It does. According to Daddy, I was from the night they experimented with the 'kulisha' position. Mummy smacked him in the head for telling me that and told him he was corrupting my innocent mind."

"Err, right." Well, someone had certainly warped her mind. Harry had always assumed it was the death of her mother that drove Luna to be slightly batty, but clearly that wasn't the case given she was still a bit left of center here with both parents alive. Maybe it was just the proximity to her bizarre father? Something in her breeding? Aunt Marge's comment long ago about the bitch and the pup came back to him… he'd never met Selene Lovegood. Perhaps after he did, things would become clearer. "So, getting back to the reason I'm here…"

Reaching back over her shoulder, Luna nodded. "Melvil. Interview kit, please." There was a whoosh of air behind them and then Luna brought her hand forward with a wooden box in it, setting it out beside the biscuits and withdrawing a piece of parchment and a Quick-Quotes Quill. Harry gave it an odd look and Luna raised an eyebrow at him. "You didn't think I actually wanted to marry you, did you? I'm only ten, Harry. And we've never even met before."

Harry groaned, rubbing his temples. He was being repeatedly outwitted by a preteen version of Luna Lovegood. He was deeply, deeply ashamed of himself. "Alright. So if you're not serious about wanting to marry me, why send the letter? You're not the only person who sent me one, you know, so yes I was thinking you were serious."

"Oh. No, I'm not Sirius. He's your father's partner." Wow. Now Harry knew how Professor McGonagall had felt when he'd dropped that one on her. That was a really stupid joke. Luna fiddled with the royal blue Quick-Quotes Quill for a moment before leaning back. "So, there were other girls sent you marriage contracts? Who?"

After eyeing the quill for a moment, Harry figured there was no harm in answering. After all, copies of all contracts sent were archived at the Ministry of Magic and she could find the answer there if he was unwilling to part with it. "Blaise Zabini and Daphne Greengrass." The quill scribbled something onto the parchment and his gaze bounced from it to Luna and back. "I'm very, very confused."

Luna took one of the biscuits, nibbling on it while eyeing him like a particularly bizarre animal she'd write about for _The Quibbler_. "Hmm. Mummy was right. Men really do need to have everything explained to them if you want them to keep up." Ouch. Misandrist preteen Luna. This was certainly boding well for a pleasant future friendship. "Do you happen to know what my Daddy does for a living, Harry Potter?"

"He publishes _The Quibbler_."

"Good, so you do know a little something. Well, I want to work for him as a reporter when I grow up. He doesn't take me seriously yet." Perhaps that was because she was ten, but Harry was wise enough to keep that to himself. "So I decided I'd get an interview with the boy who electrocuted three mountain trolls and saved the Samhuinn festivities at Hogwarts." Luna reached into her wooden box and held up a set of papers. "But if I wanted to do a formal interview request, I'd have to owl these to your parents because you're a minor still. Even though I'm a minor too. And I've heard from my sources at Hogwarts that you're really quite mature, so I thought that if I tried sending a marriage contract to you, you'd handle it directly instead of sending your father and I could have an informal interview. Like when a reporter runs into a person coming out of court. And now here you are."

It was convoluted, far too advanced for a ten year-old… and utterly brilliant. Harry shook his head. He'd fallen for it, too, which made it even worse. He revised his estimation of this Luna upward another notch or two; she would most definitely bear watching and active courting, as a friend if nothing more. She was like Hermione on acid, a fearsome combination of brilliance and non-linear thinking that had the potential to shatter boundaries and tear away the rules of magic that the wizarding world clung to if properly guided. Harry leaned back against a pillow that wriggled and patted his shoulders at it moved into a position most comfortable for him. "So let me get this straight, just to make sure we're on the same page here. You don't want to marry me, you just want to interview me?"

Groaning, Luna rested her head in her hands. "Now I know why Mummy says she's the brains of this operation. Men really are thick."

"Hey!"

"Moving on to the next question… is it true that you carry and use Rensaren, the legendary wand of Prue Thordotter?" Harry's eyes widened and Luna shrugged innocently. "I have eyes and ears everywhere, Harry. Now answer the question. Is that or is that not Rensaren tucked up your sleeve?"

Harry held his hands up in surrender. "I plead the Fifth?" Oh wait. He was a pureblood-raised half-blood. He wasn't supposed to know anything about America outside of that it was where 'Yanks' were and that Salem had a school there that accepted all kinds of 'riff-raff', also known as mixed-heritage students.

Thankfully Luna seemed more focused on tearing his argument apart than figuring out how he could make said argument, crossing her arms over her chest and narrowing her eyes at him. "You're not American, Harry. You're not protected by the Constitution."

"You're not American either!" Harry threw his hands up in the air, flopping back against the couch. "How do you even know that reference?"

"I'm a woman. I know everything."

For the rest of the afternoon, Harry lounged in the sitting room with Luna and let her bombard him with questions about his family life, school life, quidditch performance, and the troll incident. Given the Longbottoms already knew about his wand and likely couldn't keep a secret to save their lives even if they wanted to, Harry had no qualms about sharing what little he knew about Rensaren. It did make a rather interesting story, after all, and Luna had put a lot of work into being able to get close enough to him to get a story. He might as well reward her initiative.

At one point, a mid-thirties doppelgänger of Luna complete with wand tucked behind her ear wandered into the room with a tea service, kissed the top of Luna's head, and wandered back out. So that was Selene Lovegood née Shagwell. Harry snorted. Oh yes, Luna was definitely her parents' child. Then again, so was he, so did he really have room to laugh?

As the sun dwindled and dipped below the horizon, though, Harry realized poor Hermione was probably being run well and truly ragged by Jasmine and so he decided to take pity on his friend and return to the house. After watching Luna pitch the declaration of intent into the roaring fire and promising to owl her, Harry took a pinch of floo powder and flicked it into the flames. "Potter Place!"

After another twisting, gut-wrenching trip through the floo, Harry came flying out and rolled across the kitchen floor before coming to rest on his back, staring up at the ceiling. Three different laughs greeted his arrival and Harry turned his head, finding not only Hermione and Jasmine but Su as well. "Wotcher."

That just set off Hermione and Jasmine again, leaving Su to roll her eyes before standing up, walking over to give Harry a hand up off the floor. "Sheng dan kuai le."

"Gesundheit."

Su rolled her eyes again, waiting till he was on his feet before pulling away. "Well, you tried at the start of the year. I figured you would have at least put in the effort for the holidays too. Fine. Happy Christmas." Walking back over, she seated herself next to Hermione and crossed her legs, drawing a glare from Jasmine as Hermione leaned over to pat her friend's hand. "So, have a pleasant afternoon with your bride-to-be? Daphne's going to be furious, you know. I'm pretty sure she thinks she has first dibs."

Sighing, Harry wandered over to the refrigerator and withdrew a plate with some slices of turkey on it, bringing it over to the counter so he could make a sandwich. "Funny, Su. No, Luna actually sent me a contract as… well, bait for a trap, I suppose is the best way to describe it. She just wanted to get me over to her house so she could interview me for _The Quibbler_, but didn't want to try and get formal interview request papers past my parents."

"But if you just so happened to drop by her house for some reason and answered a few questions she asked you… she wouldn't need to get your parents' approval." Su nodded slowly, her grin growing wider. "Bloody brilliant that is. Well at least you know she won't be headed for Gryffindor and you'll be safe at school next year."

Slapping a few slices of turkey between two pieces of bread, Harry returned the plate to the fridge and hopped up to sit on the counter. "Oh yes, because a fearsome intellect is definitely a sign you're guaranteed to end up in Ravenclaw. Just out of curiosity, Su, what color is your tie at school? And Hermione's?" The diminutive Asian blushed at that and Harry chalked up a point for himself. "Besides, after today? I'd guess Slytherin over Ravenclaw. Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor in order of likelihood."

Harry raised his sandwich to his mouth, only to have it yanked away by an invisible magical hand as his mother breezed into the kitchen. "Oh no you don't. You're going to ruin your dinner." Putting the sandwich on a plate and throwing a stasis charm over it, she tucked it away on an unused portion of the counter and then pointed at the fridge. "Now help me make our dinner."

Lips quirking upward, Harry slid off the counter and walked over to reopen the fridge, contemplating the contents. "Are we going shopping, serving leftovers, or should we floo out for take-away tonight? Because there's nothing in here that we can use to build a meal from scratch."

"What? You can't be serious." Harry opened his mouth and Lily held up one hand. "I swear young man, if you make a comment related to your godfather, I will have you scrubbing out the loo with one of the spare toothbrushes your friend brought." Harry's mouth snapped shut and he pantomimed zipping his lips shut. "Now, there's seriously nothing decent to eat? I could have sworn I went shopping this week…"

Harry held the door open so his mother could peer inside. "Did you take Hermione into account when you went shopping? Girl eats more than Dad. If I hadn't seen the scar where the bone popped out, I'd swear her leg was hollow." Hermione returned a sweet smile followed by a rude gesture, which Harry sent right back at her. Except while Hermione escaped unscathed, he found himself slapped upside the head. "Oww! Mum!"

Shrugging unapologetically, Lily brushed past and went over to the fireplace, reaching into a vase and pulling out a bundle of fliers for local restaurants. "I don't care if she started it, she's a girl and you're going to be a bit more respectful than your father was at your age if it kills me. And Hermione's only been here for a late lunch so far, so you can't blame the lack of food on her. Yet."

"So wait a minute, because she's a girl and I'm not, she can flip me off but I can't do the same?" Harry huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. "That's so unfair."

"Life sucks and then a bludger hits you in the crotch." Hermione shrugged and grinned impishly. "By the way, Harry, have I told you lately that you have the coolest mother ever?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Uh huh. You just like her because she lets you get away with murder. Kinda like how Snape treats his Slytherins." He watched his mum flinch at the comparison to the greasy-haired bastard and chalked up another point for himself. Not that he minded getting in trouble for doing something wrong, but maybe she'd be a little less eager to enforce double standards and wave the whole 'girl power' banner in the future. Merlin knew Hermione started enough shit, and if he was the one getting punished every time… he'd go nuts in very short order. "Anyways… dinner? If you're not going to let me eat my sandwich, can we get moving on that? I'm hungry, Mum."

It was actually Su who came to his stomach's rescue, getting up and fishing a red and gold flier out of the pile that she then offered up to his mother. "My aunt and uncle run a Chinese restaurant. We could floo them to order dinner and I bet they'd offer you a discount because I'm here. Well, assuming I have permission to stay for dinner? Hermione wasn't clear on that when she invited me to floo over."

"Of course you can stay. Although Hermione, in the future it would be nice if you asked before inviting strangers into my house." The muggleborn at least had the grace to blush at the rebuke and Lily nodded before examining the flier. "I've heard good things about the Changs' cooking, though. I've never had a chance to try it because James doesn't like Chinese, but he's working tonight. Working on Boxing Day. That just seems unnatural. Alright, everyone figure out what you want and I'll floo over there with the order."

After a bit of consideration and some advice from Su, Harry selected Mao's braised pork and left Su and Hermione to try and explain the cuisine to his younger sisters as he and his mother took their leave. As soon as they entered the sitting room, Harry flicked his wand and summoned the book hiding the Marauder's Map to him, causing Lily to sigh. "You want an explanation, I assume?"

Harry raised an eyebrow at her before opening the book and pulling out the Map. Tapping it with his wand, he repeated its infamous activation phrase. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." The Marauder's Map surged to life, drawing out a map of the castle and the few professors and students who had opted to remain there for the holidays. "I'll be damned. It works from here." Harry shook his head before tapping the map again. "Mischief managed. Actually, I'm curious why you're giving it to me. Not that I mind or anything; it's dead useful. But out of the two of you, I would have pictured Dad as being the one to pass this on to me."

"I wanted to give it to you before he remembered he had it and passed it on to either you or one of the girls." Lily shrugged, tracing a finger over the parchment slowly. "I figured if I gave it to you myself, you might actually use it for something halfway responsible. Better that than your father trying to pressure one of you into starting a second generation of Marauders, at least in my opinion."

Even though he knew exactly what she was talking about, Harry forced himself to look curious. After all, it was one thing to hear it from outsiders but quite another to hear his own mother's thoughts. "Why?"

Lily sighed. "I've told you this before… your father wasn't a particularly pleasant person when he was younger. He was a bully, a braggart, and a prankster, and I hated it. I abhorred 'Prongs' of the 'Marauders' and I was very happy when he finally grew up into James Potter and started to leave that sort of thing behind. I'd prefer to see that side of him stay gone and so the more pieces of Prongs I can get rid of, the better."

"Got it. In that case, I don't suppose you know where Dad's old invisibility cloak is, do you?" Harry gulped when Lily slowly turned and fixed him with a very intense look. "Oh. You never knew he owned one, did you?" She shook her head. "Oh. Bugger. I'm… going to go see how that dinner order is coming." Harry ran towards the kitchen, his mother right behind him.

She wasn't after him, he discovered, when she surged past and grabbed some floo powder, tossing it into the fireplace. "James Potter's Office!" Throwing herself into the green flames, Lily disappeared into the network, whirling towards London and the Ministry of Magic.

Jasmine let out a low whistle. "I think Dad's in trouble."

Rose nodded. "We should probably get out the sheets and pillow for the couch." Then something occurred to her. "Wait. Where are we going to put Hermione then?"

Fortunately, Jasmine already had a solution to that problem. "My room!"

Oh, this was going to end well…

As the evening bled into night, the family enjoyed dinner before splitting up the way they always did to pursue individual amusements. Thankfully Lily had returned from the Ministry just in time for dinner and was therefore on hand to distract Jasmine, meaning Harry could spend some time with Hermione and Su before Su had to leave for the evening. And, seeing as how both were there and it was a peculiar sort of joint gift, Harry decided to give them their Christmas presents.

"You got me a book for Christmas?" Hermione eyed the wrapped package, running her fingers over it. "Lord, you really are a bookworm aren't you?"

Harry snorted as he passed Su her present. "Isn't that the cauldron calling the kettle black, Hermione? Besides, I think you two are going to like these. So go on. Open your presents."

The pair looked at their books, holding them up together to compare size. "You got us the same book?" Su frowned and shook her head slowly. "See, if you're going to pull something like that, you should at least be smart enough not to give them to the girls together. We like to be able to think we're special, even when we're not."

"Well, if you two would shut up, stop picking on me, and open your presents, you'd see that they are special." Harry crossed his arms over his chest and waited while they unwrapped them to reveal what he knew would look like two copies of the same book, a guide to intermediate-level transfiguration. "Now flip them over." On the reverse, rather than the back cover, was what appeared to be a second cover advertising an intermediate charms text. "Okay, now both of you open the book."

Hermione opened her copy a moment before Su, flipping through a few pages before looking up at Harry. "Okay? It's a textbook. I'd say thanks if I wasn't miffed about the whole 'same gift as Su' bit. We didn't even rate some individual thought? I thought you were my friend."

Frowning at her book for a moment, Su raised her gaze to Harry and narrowed her eyes. "At least you rated a book that's a book. Harry, are you aware that mine is blank inside?"

"Yep. Flip it over and open the transfiguration side." Su kept eyeing him but did as she was told, eyes widening. Harry knew what she would find: the transfiguration text that the cover said it would be… inside what she'd thought to be an empty book. "Voila. Between the two of you, you now have a charms text and a transfiguration text with some more advanced spells, not to mention tips and tricks from my dad in the transfiguration section, my mom in the charms section, and a few homemade spells my mom threw in for you to try. But the thing is… you'll have to either make a schedule about when you can use each half or study together. Each book can show either the transfiguration or the charms, but only one book can be showing each at any one time. Was a right pain, too; I had to get both mom and dad to recommend a book, buy two of each, get them to write the same thing in each book, and then research and cast the charm that links them myself." The two were staring at him oddly and Harry shrugged defensively. "What? I thought you'd like the books and it'd be a way of bringing you closer together as friends."

"We spend most of our waking hours together, Harry. The only time Su gets to escape me is when I'm on a broom." Hermione snickered and rose from the couch so she could hug Harry. "Seriously, though, thank you. It's a much better gift now that we know what it is. Remind me to dig your present out of my bag later."

A second pair of arms wrapped around Harry as Su added herself to the group hug. "Thank you, Harry, for the very lovely gift that ensures Hermione and I are out of your way so you can spend all your time with your lovely brides-to-be and not feel guilty."

Harry sighed. Why was everyone picking on him today?

Appearing near the door of her Diagon Alley flat with a sharp crack of apparition, Nymphadora Tonks shrugged her red auror cloak off and hung it on a hook before accepting her companion's cloak as well. "So, I can't cook worth a damn and you're even more helpless in the kitchen. Tom looked pretty out of it when we stopped by the Leaky Cauldron on patrol. Muggle take-away?"

Her companion just shrugged, flopping bonelessly into the easy chair near the fire. "At this point, I'd even stomach one of those wretched 'Big Macs' you keep bringing back to the office." Tonks scowled; in her opinion, the crowning achievement of muggle cuisine was that combination of two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, and onions on a sesame seed bun. "I suppose I could go for Scoff again. That ale-braised beef of theirs was brill."

"Did that the other night. What about Feng Sushi?" That just earned her a scoff and Tonks rolled her eyes, wandering over to the kitchenette and retrieving the thick stack of take-away menus she kept handy for just such occasions. Curling up in her lover's lap, she held them out to him. "Alright fine, no raw fish. Tonight, at least; I'll get you to try sushi one of these days if it kills me. And no Scoff. Anything else you're in the mood for?"

Flipping through the various options, her fellow auror muttered under his breath as he slowly narrowed the options down to two before holding up one of the menus. "Deliver Me, maybe? Get a picante pizza and a six-pack of Carling?"

Tonks arched a brow as she took the menu and located the description of a 'picante pizza', her hair darkening from her preferred bubblegum pink to a bright red. "Just out of curiosity, what do you think the odds of you being allowed into my bed tonight are if you order a pizza topped with spicy salami and chili oil?"

"Depends. What do you think your odds are of me giving you extra help mastering the Patronus Charm if you make me sleep on that lumpy monstrosity you call a couch." Tonks pouted at that comment but her lover just smirked back at her, hazel eyes twinkling behind his glasses. Damn him for being smarter and more powerful and more experienced. Damn her for being the least competent of that year's auror trainees. Sadly, she was quite aware that if not for the discreet support and aid of her lover, she probably would have washed out by now. And so while she doubted he'd truly be so petty, she really couldn't afford to take that chance. Opening her mouth to accede to his demands, Tonks was cut off as a finger gently press against her lips. "Actually, why don't we have something a bit classier? We can pick up two pasta dishes and swap so we can each try something new."

Eyes flicking over the menu again, Tonks bit her lower lip. "House penne and spaghetti bolognese?"

Nodding, her companion put a hand on the small of her back and guided Tonks off his lap. "I'm at your mercy here, Dora. You know I don't know a whit about muggle food." Rising to his feet, he pulled a galleon out of his pocket and flipped it her way. "That's for dinner. Although now that I think about it, wasn't Carling the beer I said tasted like piss?" She nodded. "Why don't you go get the food and I'll go pop over to Aberforth's place for some real beer?"

"Sounds good." As she approached the door, Tonks shifted her hair into a short black bob, knowing one of her traditional odd color styles would attract too much attention in muggle London. Pausing, she evaluated her options before grabbing a leather jacket her parents had given her as a graduation present. After all, it wasn't like she could actually wear robes or a cloak for warmth where she was going. "Hey James?"

"Hmm?"

"What do you think of my hair like this?"

After giving her a long look over, James Potter shook his head. "Not one of my favorites, to be honest. You know Lily's short hair is one of the things I find unattractive about her." Oh. Right. She remembered that rant of his now, come to think of it. Her hair dropped to her shoulders and then cascaded down her back, picking up a bit of curl to keep her from looking like a younger version of her crazy Aunt Bella. "Much better. That's my girl." Coming over to grab one of the cloaks he kept at her place for occasions like this, James gave her a peck on the lips before disappearing with a crack.

Tonks stood there for a few seconds, fingers pressed to her lips. This was why she knew she'd win in the end. Sure, Lily was his wife and older and smarter and more powerful and more skilled, but she understood his needs and could be exactly what he wanted out of a woman. So could Lily, Tonks reckoned, but she evidently didn't want to.

And that was why she'd win.

Although to boost her chances, she probably should start taking cooking classes in her spare time…