Chapter 35:

It was the start of 1999 and we were doing our wedding planning. We hired a company that would setup temporary nice accommodations using a magical method similar to travel tents. They would also provide concierge service for the guests, and cater meals at the main house. Another company handled the wedding venue and the wedding itself, including shielding the guests from what is often rainy and cold weather in February in Napa Valley. Even with companies handling everything, there were a lot of little decisions to be made. We decided on a combination of modern California cuisine, traditional English, and traditional French.

The company handling the overnight accommodation said that we should plan for up to 120% of those who RSVP yes for the night after accommodation, but only 110% of those who RSVP for the night before.

We met with Dumbledore and showed him everything we knew from Q about the future role of Renee. He agreed with our determination that 2027 would be an auspicious year to both reveal the existence of magic and a newly discovered sentient life form on Io, and iron out a Federation concept within our own Solar System, which could later include other extraterrestrial civilizations.

He continued our lessons on how to be orchestrate events and lead society. "Luna, I noticed that in canon you tended to have a more eccentric appearance than you have in our history. That is a wise choice. It is only after you have cultivated a persona of power and near infallibility, that eccentricity can be an effective part of your persona. You both do have more leeway as being apparent seers, but you might notice how that does not work for Professor Trelawney's image. If she were known as a great seer, then her eccentric appearance might work for her instead of against her. It was only after defeating Grindelwald that deliberately violating appearance norms became part of my persona.

Tom, you showed me your memories of trying to appear more intimidating. You should be very cautious of using voice enhancing spells, since if someone detected their use, their subconscious respect for you would diminish. There are other methods of accomplishing the same result, without detectable active use of magic, and I'll go over those with both of you later. You should also be aware that it was a combination of your alertness and friends that staved off any attempts to treat either of you negatively, not your displays.

At this stage of your careers, you need to have those who need to know, become aware of extraordinary achievements by both of you. It would not do, to have it seem that either one of you has the primary responsibility for your achievements.

I want to play up the recent Section 31 success in heading off a conflict between the US and Iraq, and indirectly between the Starfleet Directorates of US and Egypt. While, you showed me the history of a long war there starting in 2003, it would not be helpful to show anyone now. We all would assume that any such war would be prevented. Instead I would play up the danger of different categories of weapons of mass destruction that you ensured would not become available, due to a much stronger inspection regime under Egypt, with the convert magical help from Starfleet Egypt, than previously existed under international non-magical agencies.

Remember to build up your personas to be similar to mine you will need to show much more than apparent abilities as seers. We need to follow up, public knowledge of amazing accomplishments at a very young age, with a continuation of even greater accomplishments. You will also need to both intensively study magical fighting and dueling, not just for personal security, but as a subtle intimidation tactic. Note, that while skilled, neither of you will ever be at the level I was at your age, nor within your own generation, at the level of Harry Potter. Still, being more skilled than most skilled wizards you meet will have its advantages."

Luna said, "Thank you for your lesson. I have a question, most of your displays are to make you appear less threatening, rather than more. Your eye twinkle, obsessions with sugary foods, acting like you are focused on unimportant observations"

Dumbledore answered, "Every already knows my abilities, and it is not useful for them to be scared of me when I am trying to lead them, I would rather distract them by appearing non-threatening. What I do only works once that reputation has been established. Also, when my demeanor suddenly changes to what could be called combat mode, it makes a psychological impact, before I even perform any magic."

I said, "A very different approach than canon Voldemort used. He tortured his followers after the slightest failure, or even for reporting troubling information to him. You seem to use a disapproving look when dealing with recalcitrant followers, and nothing negative towards those who fail in good faith efforts."

Dumbledore answered, "His approach was more effective than you might realize. It goes against all three of our natures, and might have worked best with the type of person predisposed to be attracted to serve him, but his organization was very effective. It did lead to fatal weaknesses, that we did exploit however. When we summoned the Death Eaters, they responded to the summons, rather than allay their suspicions about it, due to fear of extreme punishment in case it was real and they failed to appear."

When we next appeared at Starfleet Headquarters, various people went out of their way to congratulate me and Luna for solving the Iraq situation. We not only prevented the future spread of biological, nuclear, and chemical weapons that could be given to terrorists, but established a precedent that could be used for all other rogue arsenals, meaning ones not under the tight control of a responsible non-magical government, that itself would have a magical ministry keeping track of its weapons.

At a later point, Dumbledore explained, "I orchestrated the positive reputation you got from that Section 31 intervention. You should note that when you, some day, do the same for ones that you prepare to take over your own leadership roles, it would have to be very indirect if it was your own children whom you try to praise."

The day before our wedding, many of our guests arrived to stay over, and some to do a little touring around the area. We were talking to Hermione Granger-Potter and Harry Potter. Harry said to Luna, "Your Grindylow vision actually came true. We were doing some underwater training, and we were in a magic area, and suddenly I was surrounded by Grindylows. I did the first thing that came to mind, remembering what you said in your vision, and conjured a huge number of tridents at them, which took care of the problem."

Xenophilius was answering a call, "Yes, set your coordinates to 38°26'26.1"N 122°22'25.7"W." I didn't ask him what that was about, probably a guest arriving by unusual means.

My parents showed different guests around the vineyard, and there were Picard wines of different vintages for the guests. The entire area was shielded from rain, and warmed up to pleasant temperatures. Vadim Morozov walked around the vineyard with them and asked a lot of questions about grape growing. "Your winery is now in third climate zone, after France and England. I wonder if you might give advice for Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan growers to succeed with French varieties. More dessert wine produced now, but great demand for local French style wine." When later, Xenophilius Lovegood joined their conversation, Morozov told him about how in the 7th century the Silk Road brought viticulture to Kazakhstan.

Our wedding ceremony was in the morning, since most of our guests were coming from a time zone 8 or 13 hours later. It was a very traditional wizarding ceremony, combining English and French wizarding traditions.

The music was traditional English and French wizarding dance music. Xenophilius joked about us pranking Sirius Black by having a Hobgoblins cover band. Having earlier overheard this, one of Xenophilius's cousins, toward the end of the party, actually asked Sirius Black if he was Stubby Boardman, formerly the lead singer of the Hobgoblins. Sirius laughed and said "I was too busy dodging attacks by Death Eaters back then to be in a band."

We made sure to go around and talk to each guest, which included extended family members, Hogwarts friends, Starfleet colleagues and friends.

We went on our honeymoon to South America, going to some resort areas, and also doing some exploration of the Amazon Rainforest. Our security team wasn't happy about that, but followed along, looking to rescue us from dangerous wildlife, in addition to any hostile wizards. They got really upset when Luna befriended a Caipora, but fortunately stayed back.

After a month of travel we headed back home. We occasionally checked in electronically, and visited Starfleet Bolivia more than once, so we weren't completely out of contact for a month. We even got to try out the new video conference system that Dumbledore acquired. We called him from a rocky hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean.