p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;"Luna's favorite day of the week - if she had to pick one - was Wednesday. She recognized, of course, that most people did not have favorite days of the week to begin with, and that if they did, it was likely whatever day they did not have to go to work. But work was, for Luna, just another element of the life she had made for herself - and for every element there was a right and proper time./p
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p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;"But even so, Wednesdays were her favorite. She and Ron had been married on a Wednesday (it had been the most favorable day of that particular lunar cycle), and every week since they had managed to mark the occasion with afternoon tea. Ron would come home early from the office and Luna would be sure not to have any students scheduled, and together they would enjoy a brief respite from the hustle and bustle of midweek. When the children had been small, they would often include a trip to a park, a long walk through the fields, or even just a trip to the shops together. It was these quiet moments as a family that Luna missed the most when the twins were off to Hogwarts - now the house was just quiet. And not a peaceful, soothing quiet, but a loud, unsettling quiet./p
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p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;"Perhaps it was to fill that unbearable quiet between tea and supper that Luna had begun her Wednesday book clubs - she could hardly call it one book club because the books and the crowd varied wildly from week to week. The gatherings had started small, but they grew quickly. Friends drifted in and out as they chose, and Luna had long since relinquished any illusion of control over the reading selections - one never knew who might appear at the door as result. There had been one stretch where they had read nothing but gothic novels in an attempt to lure in Mrs. Weasley, but instead they snared Pansy Parkinson, of all people. Luna had learned to keep a bottle of white wine chilling whenever romance was on the docket, for the former Slytherin was bound to drop by if only for the privilege of verbally tearing the work to shreds. (Or, as on one memorable occasion, physically doing so.)/p
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p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;"Despite the fact that it seemed just the sort of thing she would enjoy, it was very rare for Hermione Granger to put on an appearance at Luna's Wednesday gatherings. She had learned not to take this as an insult - Hermione rarely showed up for anything outside of work unless Harry laid on a thick layer of guilt. She often made excuses about being overcommitted and frequently lamented that Headmistress McGonnegal refused to loan her the last remaining Time-Turner. But as Luna watched her old school friend flit about from one group to the next, chatting with everyone just enough to make them feel comfortable but never long enough to let anyone think they had been singled out, she began to wonder if perhaps Hermione's reluctance to socialize had more to do with the crushing weight of the Wizarding World's expectations./p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;"Luna was no stranger to this frustration herself. She was well aware that she had a reputation for being more than a bit odd. Much of it she felt was no longer deserved, for like everyone else of her generation she had grown up and grown old much faster than anyone should ever have to. She still felt very deeply and saw the world differently than most people, but she had learned to share her interests only with those who would appreciate them. Still, it was difficult to overcome one's childhood reputation in a community as small and closed as the Wizarding World - sometimes she felt like people still saw her as the same "Loony Lovegood" who wore funny glasses and was a terrible Quidditch commentator. As frustrated as she was sometimes by the inflexibility of wizarding society, she could only image how difficult it must be for someone like Hermione./p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;"Hermione, after all, had been the belle of the Wizarding World for more than twenty years. The Brightest Witch of Her Age had spent decades of being hounded by reporters every time she set foot out her door, never being able to put a foot wrong without being the subject of the next day's headlines, and having every act scrutinized by a public that was never quite sure whether it wanted to find fault with her or not. And so, even at a private event in the home of one of her oldest and closest friends, Hermione always behaved as though she were on parade - she smiled and laughed and made small talk, but never relaxed enough to engage in any meaningful conversations. She was a person who thought much and believed passionately - but she rarely, if ever, expressed an opinion on anything anymore. It had to be infuriating./p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;"Or at least, so Luna remarked after all the other guests were gone and she and Hermione found themselves at the kitchen table polishing off the remains of Pansy's wine. Hermione had, as always, stayed behind to "help with cleaning up". (Luna never could convince her that the sprites really were quite happy tidying up and no, Luna didn't do things herself and then pretend they were done by sprites.)/p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;""Well, yes, but there's nothing to be done about it," Hermione replied. "Someday, if I'm very lucky, there will be something more interesting to put in the papers than Harry Potter's family and friends, but at this point I've rather given up hope."/p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;""Maybe it would help if you stopped giving them quite so much fodder for the headlines," Luna remarked gently. "Surely there are no more records left for you to break."/p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;"Hermione laughed. "You make it sound like I intended to break any of them - I assure you, I did not! I didn't even want the seat on the Wizengamot - they tried to make me take it last year when Amelia Bones retired, and I refused. But this year Kingsley threatened to nominate Harry if I wouldn't agree, and you know he would take it out some sense of duty and then be utterly miserable."/p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;"Luna smiled and shook her head. "I wish I found that reassuring, 'Mione. But it just makes it sound like you feel that you aren't the one in charge of your own life."/p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;"Hermione set her wine down on the table slowly and played with the edge of the tablecloth for so long that Luna feared she had insulted her friend. But when Hermione finally looked up, her eyes were not filled with wrath but tears. She fell willingly into Luna's eager embrace and words began tumbling out so quickly that Luna could barely make sense of them all. But it was clear that she had hit at least somewhere close to the truth./p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;""Oh, Luna, no one can hide anything from you," Hermione laughed as she wiped at her eyes and nose with a handkerchief that Luna transfigured out of a bit of lint on the floor. "Do you have any idea how annoying that is?"/p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;""Why would you want to hide your unhappiness, Hermione? From the world, I understand, but your friends only want thespan style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanvery best for you. And they are always worried about you."/p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;""But don't you see, Luna, that's why I can't tell them. Ron means well, but if I had a sickle for each of the truly awful dates he's set me up on because he thinks all my problems can be solved with a man, I'd be as rich as Draco Malfoy. Ginny too, but I could never tell her that. And Harry is a sweetheart, but he has enough on his plate with the children and all the nonsense in the Auror Department. You all have enough in your lives to worry about - you don't need me dragging you down into the dumps with me, too."/p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;"Luna shook her head. "Everyone deserves to have someone to worry about them, Hermione. I guess today, that someone is me. And I think it's time you took a holiday - when is the last time you visited that little cottage of yours?"/p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;"As Luna suspected, Hermione could not actually remember a time when she had taken a day off of work that wasn't mandated by law, much less when she had actually gone away on her own. Her holidays were generally spent making up for lost time with friends and their families, not doing things for herself./p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;""Go back to Hogsmede and enjoy a quite week in the country," Luna urged her. "Visit with Professor McGonagall and haunt the library like you used to. Then come back and tell me all about it - as much as I enjoy hearing about politics at the Ministry, I'd also rather like to hear if Octobers at Hogwarts are still as wonderful as I remember."/p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;"Hermione smiled - a thin, brittle smile that seemed capable of breaking at any moment. "Oh Luna, you have all the best ideas. If only…"/p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;""No," Luna interrupted her friend. "Not this time, Hermione. Go. Promise me you will go."/p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;""Alright. I promise."/p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;"But even so, Wednesdays were her favorite. She and Ron had been married on a Wednesday (it had been the most favorable day of that particular lunar cycle), and every week since they had managed to mark the occasion with afternoon tea. Ron would come home early from the office and Luna would be sure not to have any students scheduled, and together they would enjoy a brief respite from the hustle and bustle of midweek. When the children had been small, they would often include a trip to a park, a long walk through the fields, or even just a trip to the shops together. It was these quiet moments as a family that Luna missed the most when the twins were off to Hogwarts - now the house was just quiet. And not a peaceful, soothing quiet, but a loud, unsettling quiet./p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;"Perhaps it was to fill that unbearable quiet between tea and supper that Luna had begun her Wednesday book clubs - she could hardly call it one book club because the books and the crowd varied wildly from week to week. The gatherings had started small, but they grew quickly. Friends drifted in and out as they chose, and Luna had long since relinquished any illusion of control over the reading selections - one never knew who might appear at the door as result. There had been one stretch where they had read nothing but gothic novels in an attempt to lure in Mrs. Weasley, but instead they snared Pansy Parkinson, of all people. Luna had learned to keep a bottle of white wine chilling whenever romance was on the docket, for the former Slytherin was bound to drop by if only for the privilege of verbally tearing the work to shreds. (Or, as on one memorable occasion, physically doing so.)/p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;"Despite the fact that it seemed just the sort of thing she would enjoy, it was very rare for Hermione Granger to put on an appearance at Luna's Wednesday gatherings. She had learned not to take this as an insult - Hermione rarely showed up for anything outside of work unless Harry laid on a thick layer of guilt. She often made excuses about being overcommitted and frequently lamented that Headmistress McGonnegal refused to loan her the last remaining Time-Turner. But as Luna watched her old school friend flit about from one group to the next, chatting with everyone just enough to make them feel comfortable but never long enough to let anyone think they had been singled out, she began to wonder if perhaps Hermione's reluctance to socialize had more to do with the crushing weight of the Wizarding World's expectations./p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;"Luna was no stranger to this frustration herself. She was well aware that she had a reputation for being more than a bit odd. Much of it she felt was no longer deserved, for like everyone else of her generation she had grown up and grown old much faster than anyone should ever have to. She still felt very deeply and saw the world differently than most people, but she had learned to share her interests only with those who would appreciate them. Still, it was difficult to overcome one's childhood reputation in a community as small and closed as the Wizarding World - sometimes she felt like people still saw her as the same "Loony Lovegood" who wore funny glasses and was a terrible Quidditch commentator. As frustrated as she was sometimes by the inflexibility of wizarding society, she could only image how difficult it must be for someone like Hermione./p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;"Hermione, after all, had been the belle of the Wizarding World for more than twenty years. The Brightest Witch of Her Age had spent decades of being hounded by reporters every time she set foot out her door, never being able to put a foot wrong without being the subject of the next day's headlines, and having every act scrutinized by a public that was never quite sure whether it wanted to find fault with her or not. And so, even at a private event in the home of one of her oldest and closest friends, Hermione always behaved as though she were on parade - she smiled and laughed and made small talk, but never relaxed enough to engage in any meaningful conversations. She was a person who thought much and believed passionately - but she rarely, if ever, expressed an opinion on anything anymore. It had to be infuriating./p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;"Or at least, so Luna remarked after all the other guests were gone and she and Hermione found themselves at the kitchen table polishing off the remains of Pansy's wine. Hermione had, as always, stayed behind to "help with cleaning up". (Luna never could convince her that the sprites really were quite happy tidying up and no, Luna didn't do things herself and then pretend they were done by sprites.)/p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;""Well, yes, but there's nothing to be done about it," Hermione replied. "Someday, if I'm very lucky, there will be something more interesting to put in the papers than Harry Potter's family and friends, but at this point I've rather given up hope."/p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;""Maybe it would help if you stopped giving them quite so much fodder for the headlines," Luna remarked gently. "Surely there are no more records left for you to break."/p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;"Hermione laughed. "You make it sound like I intended to break any of them - I assure you, I did not! I didn't even want the seat on the Wizengamot - they tried to make me take it last year when Amelia Bones retired, and I refused. But this year Kingsley threatened to nominate Harry if I wouldn't agree, and you know he would take it out some sense of duty and then be utterly miserable."/p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;"Luna smiled and shook her head. "I wish I found that reassuring, 'Mione. But it just makes it sound like you feel that you aren't the one in charge of your own life."/p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;"Hermione set her wine down on the table slowly and played with the edge of the tablecloth for so long that Luna feared she had insulted her friend. But when Hermione finally looked up, her eyes were not filled with wrath but tears. She fell willingly into Luna's eager embrace and words began tumbling out so quickly that Luna could barely make sense of them all. But it was clear that she had hit at least somewhere close to the truth./p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;""Oh, Luna, no one can hide anything from you," Hermione laughed as she wiped at her eyes and nose with a handkerchief that Luna transfigured out of a bit of lint on the floor. "Do you have any idea how annoying that is?"/p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;""Why would you want to hide your unhappiness, Hermione? From the world, I understand, but your friends only want thespan style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanvery best for you. And they are always worried about you."/p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;""But don't you see, Luna, that's why I can't tell them. Ron means well, but if I had a sickle for each of the truly awful dates he's set me up on because he thinks all my problems can be solved with a man, I'd be as rich as Draco Malfoy. Ginny too, but I could never tell her that. And Harry is a sweetheart, but he has enough on his plate with the children and all the nonsense in the Auror Department. You all have enough in your lives to worry about - you don't need me dragging you down into the dumps with me, too."/p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;"Luna shook her head. "Everyone deserves to have someone to worry about them, Hermione. I guess today, that someone is me. And I think it's time you took a holiday - when is the last time you visited that little cottage of yours?"/p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;"As Luna suspected, Hermione could not actually remember a time when she had taken a day off of work that wasn't mandated by law, much less when she had actually gone away on her own. Her holidays were generally spent making up for lost time with friends and their families, not doing things for herself./p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;""Go back to Hogsmede and enjoy a quite week in the country," Luna urged her. "Visit with Professor McGonagall and haunt the library like you used to. Then come back and tell me all about it - as much as I enjoy hearing about politics at the Ministry, I'd also rather like to hear if Octobers at Hogwarts are still as wonderful as I remember."/p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;"Hermione smiled - a thin, brittle smile that seemed capable of breaking at any moment. "Oh Luna, you have all the best ideas. If only…"/p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;""No," Luna interrupted her friend. "Not this time, Hermione. Go. Promise me you will go."/p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;" /p
p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 11.0pt;""Alright. I promise."/p