Harry blinked awake, stirring slowly into the vague awareness that Luna had shifted from his embrace. He sat up and stretched, and with a lazy yawn fumbled for the glasses on the nightstand to his right.
Luna's delighted laughter caught his attention, and he turned to the broad open window to find Orion, bobbing playfully before her.
"Look at you! You're perfect, little one. What's your name?" She was grinning broadly, standing before the copper perch.
The bright summer sun shone through the broad open window, and time slowed as Harry's eyes adjusted to the light. Luna wore only her strapless bra and hipsters, both of a thin white lace that adopted something like a translucence in the bright light.
It took a moment for Harry to breathe again. "His name is Orion, and at this rate I suspect he'll stir the jealousy of both Asher and Hedwig."
She turned to him with a broad grin. "Hello, Harry Potter. I didn't want to wake you. You were sleeping so peacefully."
She gave a final peck just above Orion's eyes, and cleared the distance between the window and the bed. Harry's attention was unbroken, as he studied her movement, the subtle bounce of her breasts, the intoxicating sway of her hips.
She noticed, just then, his diligent gaze, and suddenly seemed to realize she hadn't dressed upon waking.
"Oh." She blushed a bit. "I suppose I should dress?"
Harry tripped over himself. "Goodness, no. Please don't." He halted. "I mean, you're a goddess, Luna Lovegood. I knew you were beautiful, but, honestly, I had no idea."
She bit her lip. "You like the way I look?"
His pulse was racing. "I'd show you how much, if it weren't wildly inappropriate."
Her eyes traced his form, following the definition of his torso to the blanket bundled upon his center. "Harry?"
"Yes, love?"
"I like the way you look, too."
"Yeah?"
She nodded. "I want to crawl back into bed, Harry. I want to pull back your covers. I want to see... everything." She hesitated. "But I'm not sure I could stop."
He nodded. "Darling, I wouldn't want you to."
She sighed. "So I suppose I should get dressed?"
He sighed. "I can't believe I'm saying this. But it's probably a good idea."
She fought disappointment. "Okay. That's okay. But Harry?"
He watched her, captivated. "Yes, Luna?"
"Will you kiss me later? I mean, when we're clothed?"
"I'd truly love to.'
It was after one, but as soon as they arrived in the dining room, a sizable feast awaited them. Wide platters of dosa, large bowls of curries and dahl, a diverse selection of chutneys and naan, and platters of haloumi filled the broad table. Luna's stomach growled audibly, and after a bashful giggle she led the way to nearly twenty minutes of silent indulgence.
As the empty dishes began to disappear, Luna's attention shifted to the slate chalkboard, magically expanded to now dominate the sitting room.
"It appears you've been quite busy."
Harry nodded, lacing his fingers through hers and leading her to the far side.
"Yeah, it's been quite a lot of work, actually, but I think we've been productive. It's dominated the attention of Lupin and Tonks, of course, as well as most of my time, but I think we're as prepared as we can be."
He directed her attention to the arenas they'd worked toward since last summer, explaining the campaign against known Death Eaters, the safe houses, the allies they'd enlisted, and the research they'd accomplished.
Luna, nodding throughout, suddenly interrupted him. "Horcruxes? You researched horcruxes!? Did you have any success?"
He nodded. "Loads, actually. About a third of my research was spent on it. Not a lot of terribly good news, but some, and enough to answer many of our questions, and get us started working toward a solution."
He halted at this. "I'd show you, of course, but I've just remembered that my entire library has shifted to No. 4 1/2. Along with it, many of the most important revelations. Perhaps it's for the better - Hermione won't want to miss any of it."
"Hang on." Her mind was racing. "Harry. You used the time-turner?"
Harry nodded.
"You've been away." She halted, took a breath. "You've been away for a year."
Harry nodded.
"And you've spent all this time preparing?"
Harry nodded.
"Reading? Researching? Exploring your library?"
Harry nodded.
"I want to know everything." She paused. "And I'm terribly jealous."
Hermione furrowed her brow, clearly considering how she might make the same decision without impacting the timeline.
He rolled his eyes. "Hermione, you're not going back in time so that you can have more time in the library."
She hesitated, and then nodded with a shrug. "But you must admit, the temptation is there."
They shared a laugh. Harry had forgotten how naturally they all fit together.
They were seated in one of the reading nooks of his vast library in No. 4 1/2. The Weasley boys had been roped into an early trip to Diagon Alley - the Order felt it was prudent to split trips to publicly accessible locations, so Harry, Hermione, and Luna were slated to do their school shopping tomorrow. Harry was relieved, as he wasn't quite sure when, or if at all, he'd trust the horcrux discussion with anyone outside of their tight circle.
"So where shall we begin?" Harry lifted his wand. "Accio Index."
The large, leather-bound book that had been sitting squarely in the center of his library at Ravenswood Hall flew into his right hand.
Hermione's curiosity was piqued. "Harry? What is that?"
He smiled, and winked with a playful expression. "Hermione, you're going to love this. May I borrow your quill?"
Hermione, who abhorred writing in books on absolutely every level, narrowed her eyes and furrowed her brow.
Harry laughed. "Look, would you just trust me?"
She retrieved her self-inking quill from the small messenger bag she typically kept at her side.
He opened to the middle of the work, two blank pages, and wrote the word, "horcrux" on the center of the right page.
Suddenly, eight works from six distinct locations in the library flew from their shelves to hover directly in front of him.
Hermione, with wide eyes, gasped.
Harry nodded. "I told you."
"It's better than Christmas." She whispered the words.
Harry rolled his eyes, and Luna laughed. A moment later, he grabbed a tattered volume from before him. It was clearly an ancient work, written in Arabic with margin notes in Latin.
"This text, roughly translated, 'Revelations of the Midnight Prince', is the oldest known artifact of the dark pursuit of soul manipulation. It is referenced by twelve of the eighteen texts Dobby has collected pertaining to dark soul magic, and the remaining works seem to include distant allusions to a primary text that matches its description. It had been lost in the archives of an ancient pureblood family, the whole of which were recently auctioned off after the death of its only remaining heir. Dobby, by chance or by fate, happened to be at the right place at the right time."
He opened its pages, and suddenly the setting seemed to shift, the atmosphere around them grew thicker, almost suffocating, and they each felt the distant influence of despair. He shut the book.
"As you can see, it's enchanted. Only the most determined witch or wizard can study it's pages, and only briefly, without being overcome. Happily, a potion Luna and I discovered early last-" He halted. "-er, this summer, offsets this effect."
He handed each of them a small glass vial with an emerald green liquid. "This is Mens Protecta. It's often used when in the presence of a Ligilimens, to protect the mind from nefarious influence." He pulled the cork and drank the contents, a moment later, Hermione and Luna had done the same.
He opened the dark volume once again a moment later. None of them registered any ill effects, so he began to flip through its pages.
"Of course it's written in Arabic, so I can't read it naturally. I've employed a spell to decipher the contents. Lupin cast it on my behalf, but I suppose I'm able to do so now."
He pulled out his wand waved it in a quick vertical pattern, and whispered the incantation, "Decifrare." Suddenly the illuminated manuscript was accessible to them, as if it had been written in modern English.
"Fascinating." Hermione spoke, as if enchanted.
"The entire book is worth a read, although I'll warn you - it's one of the darker texts I've ever laid my hands on. But the thirteenth chapter is devoted exclusively to horcruxes."
As he turned the page, there was an illustration, gilded with gold and colored with what appeared to be dried blood, a brownish red and brilliantly glowing illustration of a dead man, sliced in pieces. It was grotesque, and not a little horrifying. Luna looked away for a long moment.
"In all my reading, it appears that nothing new has been contributed to the notion since the composition of this text. All the others reference it and give minor, explanatory notes. Yet by all accounts this is the source."
He turned the pages slowly, and they were engrossed in the dark instructions. "For our purposes, there are two notable aspects of to review. First, this text admits the possibility of an inadvertent, human horcrux. An accidental cast. Second, and this is what excites me, it gives instructions on how to undo the spell."
Hermione's eyes went wide. "Undo?"
Harry nodded. "Yes. Undo. Not necessarily destroy. That might, I fear, kill me (although it's debatable). I'd honestly like to avoid the attempt if possible."
Hermione began sifting through the document while he spoke.
"Destroying a horcrux is simple." He hesitated. "Perhaps that's not fair. At least relatively, it's simple. You need to pierce it with a magical weapon of the highest order of strength. This is why the diary was so easily destroyed. There are few poisons so destructive as basilisk venom. So the basilisk fang was sufficient to destroy the diary."
Luna brightened. "Excellent! So we only need find another basilisk fang?"
Harry smiled. "Good news on that front." He crossed the room to grab a leather bag. When he returned, he withdrew what appeared to be a dagger. "This is one of a set - perhaps the last of its kind. It's a dagger that belonged to a dark wizard hunter, a Bulgarian wizard named Nikolai Morozov. It's enchanted to retain the venom of the basilisk from which this fang was taken. I'm certain it'll do the trick."
Luna actually clapped at this, and kissed Harry on the cheek in her excitement.
He smiled, and a moment later his brow furrowed. "Undoing the accidental horcrux is a matter slightly more complicated."
He flipped a few more pages. "You see, in order to exorcise the soul fragment — in order to cast it back to its master — you must be able to see it, and to speak with it. The soul fragment must be embodied."
Hermoine's eyes narrowed.
"It would have been simple, for instance, with the diary, for the fragment of Voldemort was embodied near the end. It's more of an issue with the fragment that I'm carrying, you know, in me."
Hermione spoke after a moment's silence. "I'm not sure I understand. By what means can a soul be, for lack of a better word, extracted? The soul isn't tangible, nearly all of the theorists agree."
Harry nodded, his brow furrowed. "Indeed. You need quite a powerful object, actually." He paused for a moment. "There are three. At least there have been three, in documented magical history, objects powerful enough to amplify the soul, to embody the soul in the sense the text seems to mean. Two of them were destroyed by a dark wizard in the sixteenth century — an effort to prevent the discovery of his fragments. One was, at least reportedly, destroyed in the aftermath of the Grindewald crisis. When I discovered this last tidbit, I nearly lost all hope. Yet there was enough ambiguity - enough conflicting reports - about the last object, that I sent Dobby to sift through the world's known collections of dark artifacts to find it."
He reached again into the leather messenger, retrieving a mirror of intricately carved ivory. "This is Susuri's Glass. A dark object coveted for nearly a thousand years. It's power is unparalleled. Here, take a look."
He handed the mirror to Hermione.
"What do you see?" He asked.
"I see me." She flipped it over in her hand, and back again. "Actually, it doesn't appear to have any magical properties. Just a mirror."
He handed the mirror to Luna.
"And you, Luna?"
She held it before her, her brow furrowed. "Nothing unusual, Harry Potter."
He nodded, took the mirror from her hands, and turned away from them. A moment later, he conjured a chair, and sat. "Now stand behind me, and see what I see."
They stood, gazed into the mirror which Harry held at arms length, and looked into the eyes of Tom Riddle.