"Ready, Romanoff?" Harry asked, standing up from the table and holding his hand out for his companion to take. Natasha looked back down at her now empty plate before slowly nodding.
"I suppose," she said. She slid her hand into his and let him help her out of her seat. "So, I hope you've got some more tricks up your sleeve on this 'day of magic' you've promised me. Because I should warn you that you've already set the bar pretty high with that breakfast." There was another little squeal of happiness from Harry's kitchen, where his pair of house elf employees were cleaning up.
"I think you just made Nossa's day," Harry said. "Again. She's probably going to pester me nonstop to ask when you'll be able to come over and eat a meal she's prepared for you again." He wasn't kidding. His elves were happy to cook for Harry and tend his house, but Nossa's big eyes had gotten even bigger when he'd told her that he was going to have a woman over for breakfast. Hermione and Ron had been Harry's only guests in the last year or so. Hermione accepted Harry employing the elves since he treated them well, gave them wages, and had them take time off, but she still wasn't comfortable eating their cooking. Considering Harry hadn't had an actual girlfriend since his relationship with Ginny fizzled out not long into her final year at Hogwarts, and Harry had only hired Nossa and Flopsy a couple of years into his auror career, being able to cook breakfast for 'Master Harry and his special lady' had been a treat for Nossa.
"I'll eat her cooking any time," Natasha said. "But I guess it's up to you to make sure this first date goes well, huh?" Her voice was playful and she was smiling at him. Still, she probably wasn't aware of how much this very responsibility had been weighing on him over the past few days, ever since he'd finally worked up the courage to ask his beautiful SHIELD partner out on a date. He was honest enough to admit that he had been drawn to Natasha Romanoff from the first day he'd met her, during that meeting where she'd come to the Ministry of Magic representing SHIELD to recruit him to their agency. She was only more important to him now, six months later.
"Guess so," he said, smiling. "Good thing I've got such a great day planned." Treating her to a breakfast cooked by his house elf employees had only been the start of his promised 'day of magic', but he was glad she'd enjoyed it so much. He turned his head towards the kitchen. "We'll be leaving now, Nossa. I probably won't be back until the evening, so you and Flopsy are free to leave for the day after you've finished cleaning up." He let go of Natasha's hand and held out his arm instead. They'd frequently made good use of his ability to cover great distances quickly through apparition, so Natasha instantly understood the purpose and slid her arm through his.
"So we really are going somewhere, huh?" Natasha said. She turned her head up to look at him, and the curve of her lips let him know he was about to get teased. "And here I thought that starting the day off with breakfast at your house was just an excuse to try and get me into bed." Harry laughed and rolled his eyes, trying to play it cool even as the thought of getting Natasha into bed nearly forced a blush to his face.
"It's not going to be that easy for you to get into my pants, Romanoff," he said, returning her playful teasing with some of his own. He struggled with that when they started working together, but he'd gotten better. Natasha laughed and shook her head.
"What a shame," she said. "I guess I'll have to keep it in my pants while you show me your magic."
"Glad to hear it," he said. "Now hold on." He apparated them out of the kitchen of his flat and to their next destination, which waited for them back in England. Such long-range apparition was only safe for a highly skilled wizard to perform, but Harry knew it wasn't bragging to say that it was no trouble at all for him.
Natasha gasped right when they arrived, but it wasn't because she'd had trouble with the side-along. She'd held onto his arm and let him side-along her often enough by now that she didn't stumble even slightly. Her gasp was because she was looking around in wonder at their new surroundings.
"Where are we?" she asked, craning her head to look at some massive rosebushes and other plants that Harry didn't recognize.
"It's a magical greenhouse in England, owned by one of my old friends from school," Harry said. Neville had been thrilled to help out when Harry got in touch to ask if he could take his date on a walk through his greenhouse. You're going to see plants here that you'd never be able to see anywhere but in the wizarding world."
"Wow," Natasha said, still moving her head around as she tried to see everything she could. "All this time we've worked together, and I've never really thought about the world you came from beyond what your magic can do during missions. I'd never have even thought of magic creating something this beautiful."
"Magic is capable of a lot, yeah," Harry said, nodding. He let go of Natasha's arm but reached for her hand. She took it, and they began to walk hand in hand through Neville's greenhouse.
"It's fascinating," Natasha said, stopping to look closely at a Venomous Tentacula. "Do you ever regret spending so much time in the non-magical world when you come from something like this?"
"No," Harry said honestly. "It's not like I can't come back and spend time in the wizarding world whenever I want to. But I'm happy to spend my day-to-day life in the muggle world, wi-working for SHIELD." He'd almost said 'with you' but changed it to 'working for SHIELD' quickly.
The reasons he'd given for accepting the offer and resigning from the Aurors to join SHIELD around six months ago had included a desire to spend less time in wizarding Great Britain, where people still gawked at his slightly faded scar when he walked down the street, a lack of fulfillment in the Aurors, and a feeling that his magic would be able to make more of a difference working for SHIELD. All of those things had been true, but there was an equally important reason, one that Harry had left unspoken. Saying no and staying where he was would likely have meant never seeing Natasha Romanoff again, and even if he'd only just met her, he hadn't been able to bear the thought of her walking out of the Ministry building and returning to her work in a world that was separated from his own. Harry had never regretted that decision. Working with SHIELD had been incredibly rewarding, and he really did have a chance to make a much greater difference than he had with the Aurors. But the best part of working with SHIELD was working so closely alongside Natasha day after day. They made a great team, and he had only grown closer to her the longer they worked together.
Her saying yes to this date had filled him with joy, but the panic and self-doubt had set in nearly as quickly. How could he make this date memorable for her? It was no secret that Natasha had no shortage of men interested in her, and several had way more money in their bank accounts than Harry did. Where was he supposed to take her to make this date special?
As he so often did when he ran into a problem he couldn't see the answer to, Harry turned to Hermione for help. His best friend had rolled her eyes and told him he was being silly, that Natasha had said yes to him, not to anyone else who had tried to proposition her, and she was going to have a great time with him because she liked him. But when that hadn't been enough to ease his worries, she'd helped him find the answer. Other men would kill for the chance to take Natasha to the fanciest restaurants and most exclusive clubs in the world. Still, Harry could take her to a completely different world and show her things that no muggle could ever show her, no matter how many zeroes they had in their bank account. They spent every day working in the muggle world, albeit a muggle world where heroes and villains with extraordinary powers existed. But today, Harry would take Natasha into his world. He would show her magic, beyond its practical applications that he used it for as a member of SHIELD.
She knew all about apparition, but breakfast this morning had been the first taste of house elf cooking she'd ever had, and Harry knew that Natasha's enthusiastic approval of the food had not been an act. Now she was turning her head this way and that, asking questions about the various plants they saw while walking around Neville's large greenhouse. Harry knew how much time Neville took to create and maintain this greenhouse and the ever-growing assortment of exotic plants it contained, and seeing the obvious fascination that Natasha had with it all, Harry made a mental note to do something special for his friend as thanks for letting him bring her here. Maybe he could ask Hannah if there were any rare plants Neville would like to add to his collection but hadn't had the time or opportunity to get his hands on yet.
Harry didn't recognize every plant they passed, but he was certainly familiar with the giant plant in a darkened corner. He was actually surprised that Neville had one in his greenhouse, even if it looked quite a bit smaller than the one that had made such a big impression on Harry during his first year at Hogwarts. There were obvious reasons why this plant had to be kept in a magically darkened section of the greenhouse and also why Neville had to put special protections around it. He could sense a magical barrier surrounding it, but he still put a hand on Natasha's arm to make sure she didn't step too close to it.
"I can tell Nev's got magical protections in place, but that's still one you don't want to get too close to," he said quietly.
"Yeah, those tentacles don't look very friendly," Natasha said. Harry snorted and shook his head.
"You can say that again," he said. "It's called a Devil's Snare, and it, well, snares anyone who touches it. It starts by binding your arms and legs, and then it starts choking you. The only way to escape it is to keep your head and relax. It'll let you go if you can do that, but if you panic, you're fucked. The harder you struggle, the faster it binds you." Something on his face or in his voice must have given away that he wasn't simply reciting an explanation he remembered from a textbook because Natasha nudged his side. She looked at him strangely when he looked away from the Devil's Snare to make eye contact with her.
"It kind of sounds to me like you've dealt with one of these plants before," she said. Harry nodded.
"One of those things nearly suffocated me to death when I was eleven years old," he explained. Natasha only looked more concerned now.
"I probably don't have room to talk, considering the Red Room took me when I was still an infant. But this sounds strange to me. Didn't you say you started at your school, Hogwarts, when you were eleven?"
"Yep." Harry nodded, lost in memories of his first year as he stared at the plant that would have killed him if Hermione hadn't paid attention during herbology. "It was in the school, actually. It was one of the defenses the professors set in place to protect the Philosopher's Stone." Natasha's eyebrows shot up.
"You said you'd gotten caught up in some interesting adventures in your school, beyond what your file said about the war, Voldemort and everything," Natasha said. Harry grinned at her casual use of Voldemort's name. She hadn't grown up in this world, fearing even to speak his name. To her, Voldemort was just a name on a file. Harry had a feeling that she wouldn't have feared using his name even if she'd grown up a witch, though. Natasha Romanoff was not the type to cower in fear. "Somehow, I still didn't expect deadly tentacle plants to be part of the curriculum, though." Harry laughed, and they started walking again after he gave her hand a little tug.
"Hogwarts is an interesting place, to say the least. I don't think most students there have adventures quite like mine, though."
"You do seem to have a knack for getting into trouble," Natasha said, smiling over at him and squeezing his fingers as they walked. "If Hogwarts was responsible for how you turned out, maybe more kids should be exposed to dangerous tentacle plants." Harry laughed.
"Alas, I doubt there are any more Devil's Snares sitting around Hogwarts these days, waiting to bind unsuspecting students," he said. "My time there was unique, and it was more dangerous than a school is really supposed to be. But it was home. Or it was the closest thing I'd ever had to one at the time, anyway."
Most of the plants in Neville's greenhouse didn't carry the potential danger of a Devil's Snare. Still, Natasha appreciated the beauty of many of the magical plants she'd never seen before, like the giant umbrella flowers that dangled from the greenhouse ceiling. She was also surprised to hear Harry explain some of the magical properties of more common plants, such as aconite's use as an ingredient in the Wolfsbane Potion and the valerian flower being part of the Draught of Living Death. When they'd reached the portion of Neville's greenhouse where he had a stock of aquatic plants, Natasha had demanded all the details on how he'd consumed gillyweed to grow gills that let him breathe underwater and webbing between his fingers and toes to make swimming easier.
Harry hadn't needed to spend a dime (or a knut, being back where he was) to make this portion of their day of magic happen. But he was confident that Natasha was more impressed by and interested in this morning stroll through the magical greenhouse than she would have been by the most expensive scenic view that money could buy in the muggle world. And considering the interest she was showing in not just the plants but his personal experiences with them, he was also confident that she wouldn't have enjoyed this trip through the magical greenhouse nearly as much if she had been holding any wizard's hand but his.
"You're Gabrielle? The little girl Harry pulled out of the lake after he swallowed the gillyweed?" Gabrielle Delacour giggled and nodded her head at Natasha's question.
"Yes, that was me," Gabrielle said in only lightly accented English. As the owner of a French restaurant in the magical portion of London, she'd put more effort into mastering the English language than her older sister had. She maintained just enough of a French accent for it to be cute rather than annoying or hard to understand. It wasn't like Gabrielle needed any assistance appealing to anyone, though. She'd been a cute kid, looking like a miniature version of Fleur, but as a young woman in her early twenties, she was an absolute knockout. She was smiling such a beautiful smile as she checked on Harry and his lunch date that one of the men eating at the table opposite Harry and Natasha's choked on his soup.
"That was many years ago now, and I was still a little girl then. Imagine my surprise when I woke up to find myself in the arms of the Harry Potter!" Gabrielle turned that smile on Harry, and he couldn't deny that Fleur's sister had grown into a stunning young woman. "No matter how many years pass, he will always be my hero."
"I don't have anything to worry about, do I?" Natasha said, though she was smiling playfully as she said it. Gabrielle laughed and shook her head.
"Most certainly not!" the French restaurateur said. "I fancied Harry as a girl—who would not, had they seen those gorgeous green eyes looking at them with concern when they woke from their slumber?" Harry fought not to blush, but he had a feeling Natasha could still tell he was embarrassed. "But I accepted long ago that he will always view me as that young girl in the lake, no matter how many years pass." Gabrielle smiled at him. "Even if I had still held out hope after all this time, I can see how he looks at you. A veela knows better than to pursue a taken man, and I know you have to be a special woman for Harry to finally make use of my open offer for him to claim a table whenever he wants it. I daresay no woman will have any luck competing against you for Harry's affection, Miss Natasha." Harry was definitely blushing now, and Gabrielle seemed to love it, giggling at him before leaving them to enjoy the rest of their lunch.
"I like her," Natasha said. "Gorgeous, funny, and shegave me the best bouillabaisse I've ever tasted. There are millions of guys who'd kill to have a girl like that smile at them the way she smiled at you." Her face spread into a smirk. "But she seems pretty convinced that there's only one woman you want smiling at you like that. And I'm pretty sure the woman in question loves the way you look at her."
Natasha gave him a wink and returned to her bouillabaisse.
The only thing Harry missed about the visit to Luna's magical wildlife reserve in comparison to Neville's greenhouse was that she wasn't holding his hand this time. But seeing the wonder on Natasha's face as she set eyes on various magical creatures for the first time made it a worthwhile loss in his mind. She was currently finding great amusement in tossing various shiny objects of little to no value onto the ground and watching the family of nifflers snatch them up and stash them in the pouch on their bellies.
"It's unfortunate that you didn't visit on the evening of a full moon," Luna commented, standing a little ways away. "You could have fed the mooncalves."
"Yeah, too bad," Harry said. "Maybe next time." While Luna often spoke of creatures whose existence was dubious at best, he had actually heard of mooncalves, even if he hadn't ever seen one.
"Already planning a next time, are you, Harry?" Natasha said, turning away from the nifflers to grin at him. She still had one of the little shiny things in her hand, so the faster niffler snatched it out of her hand while she was looking at him.
"The thought had crossed my mind," he said, grinning right back at her. Natasha laughed.
"I have never seen you behave so playfully with a woman, Harry," Luna said. He turned his head towards his Ravenclaw friend, and she was smiling softly. "It is lovely to see." Her large silvery eyes moved back to Natasha. "I have you to thank for that. We all love Harry very much, you know, and we want to see him happy. He didn't seem very happy whenever I would speak with him in the years after we finished at Hogwarts, but his happiness makes his skin glow now as it never has before. Thank you for putting that smile on his face."
"You're welcome?" Natasha said uncertainly. Even the Black Widow didn't seem to know quite what to say to Luna. "I'm the one who should be thanking you, though. This has been fascinating."
"I'm always happy to share my love of creatures with anyone who has an interest," Luna said brightly. "You'd be welcome at my reserve even if Harry wasn't smitten with you." Natasha laughed and nudged Harry slightly with her elbow, taking obvious pleasure in his embarrassment.
"Then I'd be delighted if you'd show me more of them," Natasha said. She reached for Harry's hand, and he was happy to take it. Everything felt perfect now that he and Natasha were walking hand in hand as they followed Luna around the reserve. Luna was pleased to offer a background of each creature they encountered and often had interesting personal stories to share as well. Natasha listened to it all with obvious interest and asked several questions throughout. Her interest level rose to its highest any time Harry had a personal story of his own to add, and it felt to him like Luna often set him up with perfect openings to do so. He hadn't figured that Luna Lovegood would be much of a wingman, or wingwoman as it were, but she was really coming through for him.
Natasha stopped short when they ventured deeper into the forest area of the reserve, but she did not let out any of the obviously disconcerted noises that most people had the first time that they saw these particular winged creatures. It was no surprise that Natasha could see them, and Harry wasn't surprised that she gave off no signs of fright either.
"Oh, you can see the thestrals, then," Luna said quietly.
"Should I not be able to?" Natasha asked. "They seem pretty hard to miss, honestly."
"Not everyone can see them," Harry explained. "In order for them to be visible to you, you have to have seen someone die in front of you and fully accepted and understood what that means." Natasha nodded.
"No worries there, then," she said. Harry just nodded. He had been able to see them at 15, after seeing Cedric murdered in front of him in the graveyard the following term. But had Natasha ever encountered a thestral before now, she would have been able to see them from an even younger age than he had.
"Are they dangerous?" Natasha asked. Given their size and eerie fleshless appearance, it was a reasonable question.
"Not if you don't give them a reason to be," Luna answered. "Thestrals are gentle creatures unless they sense you are an enemy."
"The thestrals at Hogwarts let us ride them all the way to London when I was in 5th year," Harry added. "That was how we made it to the Ministry building to try and save Sirius." Natasha squeezed his fingers at that. He hadn't explained the story in detail, but she did know about Sirius, and how Harry had been lured into a trap that cost his godfather his life.
"Yes, they're very loyal and helpful animals," Luna said. "It's a shame so many people fear them because of their appearance."
"Would it let me pet it?" Natasha asked suddenly.
"If it believes you're friendly, yes," Luna said. "I don't suspect that you will have any problem. Thestrals are very perceptive, and you have a kind heart." Natasha chuckled.
"Not something I'm used to hearing," she said, before turning her head towards Harry. "Want to come with me?"
"Sure." Harry would happily go just about anywhere as long as he was walking beside Natasha, her hand in his. They approached the thestral together, and the skeletal winged horse watched them approach. Natasha did not cower with those white pupil-less eyes on her. She continued to approach and slowly stuck her left hand out towards the thestral while Harry held onto her right.
"Hi there," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. The thestral looked at her briefly before lowering its head to allow Natasha to pet it. Her hand patted the skeletal creature's head, and a slow smile spread across her face. "You're not scary at all. You're just misunderstood, aren't you?"
Harry felt spellbound as he watched Natasha pat the thestral's head and listened to her speak to it in gentle, soothing tones. The Black Widow's hands had been soaked red with blood time and again. Harry was no stranger to violence, bloodshed and even killing, but he knew Natasha had experienced even more of all of it. Much like the thestral, though, there was so much more to her than there might appear to be at first glance.
The Black Widow might have been trained to kill in the Red Room, but Natasha Romanoff was also a woman who could see beauty in a thestral. She'd used her skills and even her attractiveness to lure many men into a trap so she could subdue them or get what she needed from them, but she hadn't needed to do any of that to capture Harry's heart.
He'd taken interest in her right away due to her physical attractiveness, naturally. But asking her out on this date had been about so much more than just Natasha's beauty or her incredible body. Luna was right; he was smitten with Natasha. And watching her pet the thestral and speak to it with such soothing gentleness, he felt like he might be even more smitten with her now than he had been when she'd first sat down at his table for breakfast that morning.
Natasha whooped with joy as Harry flew them around the pitch, and Harry felt pretty joyous himself. It had been way too fucking long since he'd gotten in a good fly.
Until today, the only form of magical travel that Natasha had ever experienced was side-along apparition. That was the fastest and most convenient method possible, so any time they needed to get somewhere quickly while out on the job, apparition was the obvious choice. She'd looked at him somewhat uncertainly when he brought out his broomstick and invited her to take a ride with him, but she trusted him enough to climb on behind him and wrap her arms around his waist as he took the broom into the air.
He hadn't been able to bear to get rid of his broom when he left his home in the magical world to join SHIELD, but he'd only actually flown it twice in the last six months. He lived among muggles, and while that was great in the sense that he didn't have people gawking at him when he walked down the street, it also meant that a man flying through the air on a broomstick would have drawn plenty of unwanted attention.
He'd missed the freedom of flying, and he was glad for the chance to fly his broom around the quidditch pitch belonging to the Holyhead Harpies. Quidditch was currently in its off-season, so Gwenog Jones, now part-owner of the team, had been more than happy to give Harry clearance to use it for the day when Ginny put him in contact with her. Harry still had fond memories of his time on the pitch at Hogwarts, searching for and pursuing the snitch even while dementors, possessed professors, and a well-meaning house elf tried to stand in his way.
This might have been the most memorable fly he'd ever had, though, and not just because it had been so long. He was used to flying on his own, but he quickly came to appreciate the benefits of flying with Natasha sitting right behind him on the broom. It was cramped, but that just meant that their bodies were pressed tightly together while she hugged him from behind. The faster he went, the more Natasha whooped and the tighter she held onto him. She loved the thrill of soaring through the air on his broom, and he loved sharing it with her. Naturally, it made him feel daring enough to keep pushing.
He shot the broom higher into the air, pushing it to even greater speed. Natasha let out a sound between a scream and a laugh, and her arms tightened their grip on Harry's waist. Hogwarts' youngest seeker in a century smiled wider than he ever had after catching the snitch.
"What a day," Natasha said, smiling at him. They'd reached the door to her apartment, but she hadn't moved to open it just yet. "You promised me a day of magic, and you came through."
"I'm glad you had a good time," he said, smiling back. "I wanted to give you a date you'd never have been able to get with anyone else."
"You definitely did that, and it was great," she said. "For the record, though, I would have had a great time no matter where you'd taken me."
"Like me that much, do you?" he said playfully. Natasha grinned and shrugged her shoulders.
"What can I say? You've grown on me, Potter." Natasha finally reached to turn the knob and stepped into her apartment, but she lingered in the doorway and faced him. "If you asked me on a second date, I wouldn't say no."
"You won't have to wait long," Harry promised. She looked at him expectantly, and Harry put his hands on her waist. She licked her lips, and Harry leaned in to give her a kiss goodnight. Her lips felt even softer than they looked, and feeling her kissing him back and putting a hand on his shoulder, he was sorely tempted to push for more. But he managed to rein himself back in and pull away before the kiss could turn from chaste to demanding.
He didn't get to pull back far, though. As soon as he let go of her waist, Natasha's right hand shot down to grab his. She pulled him in through the doorway into her apartment, and Harry's feet were all too happy to move along with her tugging.
"Today has been amazing, Harry," she said once he was inside the apartment with her. She kicked the door closed behind her and gave him a smoldering look. "But for the rest of the night, it's my turn to show you some magic."