August 1, 1993

Harry glared at the little bit of sunlight shining through the window as if it had personally offended him. True, there were a dozen different charms he could cast to darken the room once more, but he ignored those options in favor of staring down the offending light that had woken him up in the first place.

Last night had been exhausting. Thankfully Ivy's birthday had not involved hundreds of guests, but Harry had almost forgotten how well teenagers managed to stay up until unholy hours of the evening. Morning, really, at that point. It was also a fair possibility that someone (and who was really anyone's guess at this point, what with the twins, and Sirius, and Barty, and Remus, and half a dozen others from Ivy's group of friends), had added something or other to the food or the drinks or the air (again, anyone's guess at this point), to make them stay awake longer. That had to be it.

"Good morning, Harry. It's a beautiful morning."

Harry groaned and shoved his face back into his pillow as his wife (and no, he didn't look for any excuse to call her that) laughed at his pain. "How can you possibly be voluntarily awake at such a horrific hour of the morning?"

"It's nine in the morning."

Harry charged on. It was horrific when you didn't go to bed until five. "How are you so happy right now? It's too early for happiness."

"Happiness is a choice," Luna said.

"It's too early for choices."

"Would you like to go back to sleep?"

"Merlin, yes."

Luna laughed before darkening the room and heading out. Harry fell back into a blissful sleep, his thoughts lingering on his absolutely perfect wife.

"This is going to get me banned, isn't it," Sirius said, looking at the disaster that was the kitchen and a very unhappy Kreacher, who was one breath away from reminding Sirius exactly what he thought of his favorite peoples' unfortunate relation.

"It's not that bad…" Ivy said.

"You are a terrible liar, Ivy."

"Well it could be worse."

"How could this be worse?"

"It could be on fire?"

"Excuse you, I am not Remus."

Ivy giggled. "Well, no one else is down yet, so maybe we can get this cleaned up before anyone notices?"

"Excellent plan. Kreacher…" Sirius started, but said elf leveled him a glare that made whatever request he was about to make die an instantaneous death.

"Kreacher is not be helping Master Fleabag hide this. Kreacher not be helping Master Fleabag keep kitchen privileges." With that Kreacher left with an unnecessarily loud pop.

"Yeah, that's fair," Sirius said, before clapping his hands. "Alright, so, where do we start?"

Ivy pointed to the unidentifiable sludge on the ceiling.

Sirius sighed. "I was afraid you were going to say that."

A few minutes later and they had made a bit of progress. The kitchen was still a mess, but it no longer resembled the culinary war zone that it had prior. Magic and an ability to turn chores into a game had something to do with that.

Then Luna walked in and the song Sirius was belting out much to Ivy's amusement came to a sudden halt, which was also very much to Ivy's amusement.

"Er, hi Luna. Beautiful morning, isn't it. Don't mind us."

"Good morning. And it is."

"You want to play whack-a-sludge with us?" Ivy asked.

Sirius cringed. Ivy wasn't supposed totell. But Luna just agreed, and proved to be a rather good hit with the spatula.

A few minutes later Barty joined in.

Remus abstained, citing his ongoing kitchen ban.

Neville, who Sirius hadn't realized had actually stayed the night, took to watching. Sirius was certain he saw the boy throw a few minor jinxes their way a time or two, but he had no proof and the kid looked far too innocent. No way he would be able to convince anyone else.

Harry took one step into the kitchen, and turned around. Winky would make sure the house was left standing. Probably.

Whack-a-sludge had, at some point in the last forty minutes, turned into spell target practice, which was educational, and therefore entirely justifiable, in Sirius's opinion.

Harry returned home eventually, a large sack of French pastries in hand. He was under no illusions that the disaster in the kitchen would have somehow rectified itself so far as to turn into a respectable breakfast. Besides, it was an excuse to go to his favorite bakery, which thankfully existed in this universe as well. It was the only acceptable one in London according to Fleur and she had gotten him hooked, and now that his loving family was destroying his kitchen he had an excellent excuse to pay the place a visit.

August 2, 1993

"Guess who is the new defense professor," Sirius called out as he sauntered into the dining room.

"Aetius Deverill," Sabrina guessed.

"What? No."

"Elric Burke," Blaise called out enthusiastically.

"No, it's…"

"Oh wait, I know. Diana Arkwright," Blaise said, entirely confident in his choice apparently.

"Who?"

"Oh she would be wonderful," Sabrina gushed.

"It's me," Sirius practically shouted. "I'm the new defense professor."

"Good for you, darling," Sabrina said, as if she hadn't just supported the idea of someone else being well suited for the position.

"You know, you're really supposed to get marriedbeforeyou go dying on us," Blaise quipped.

Sirius's eye twitched. He loved Sabrina and Blaise. He loved Sabrina and Blaise. He really loved Sabrina. And Blaise.

"It's just a single year contract, dear. Sirius will be alive and well next year for our wedding."

Sirius's brain came to a halt. "Huh?"

Simplicity over elegance.

"Well, you were going to propose before you left, right?"

"Yes, but how did you…"

Sabrina's smirk stopped him mid sentence. Sirius sighed. "And I just confirmed it, didn't I."

"I'm sure the proposal will be lovely."

"Damn straight."

Sirius bent down to give Sabrina a kiss. Unfortunately they were not alone at the moment, as they were clearly reminded a few seconds in by Blaise loudly asking about the defense position. And about something or other that Sirius just nodded along to. He was a little distracted at the moment, but whatever it was he was sure it was fine.

"Sirius is going to be the best. No offense, professor," Blaise said, turning guiltily towards Remus, who just waved him off.

"Maybe," Ivy replied, not ready to assume that anyone could make a better defense professor than Remus.

"No no no, you don't get it. He said he would help us get more Hogsmeade days."

Remus snorted. "And how exactly did you get him to agree to that?"

"I asked him while he was kissing mum."

Ivy laughed. "Do you think he'll actually remember then?"

Blaise shrugged. "Don't care. Either way I'm holding him to it."

Remus shook his head, laughing silently. Sirius had no idea what he was in for.

"Oh, and did I mention that he and mum are getting married?"

Silent laughter turned into distinctly not silent coughing.

Harry watched Ivy and Blaise fondly as they discussed loudly and in great detail what their soon-to-be "official" sibling status would entail. Watching them also meant he wasn't thinking about how Sirius was telling Sabrinaeverythingright now. Because that would stress him out and who needs stress in their life. So nope, he was instead watching the kids argue over the finer points of their siblinghood. Much better use of his time.

Then the floo chimed, as it did with increasing frequency nowadays, and through it came the two people he had just been not thinking about. Before he could process any sort of reaction to the arrival of his friends, Sabrina was across the room with her arms thrown around him in a great big hug.

It took Harry a few seconds too long to reciprocate, but Sabrina didn't seem to be bothered by it.

"Oh, you poor man," she said softly, hugging him a little closer.

"You're not mad?" he whispered back.

"Of course not," she said strongly. "How could I possibly be."

Harry relaxed a little. No matter how many times he told someone (or in this case, had Sirius tell someone) about his little dimension hopping experience, he was always nervous for the reaction. Perhaps even more so with each person, because each new person meant one more person that knew, and that could possibly use that knowledge to hurt Ivy or Luna or any of the other people he cared about. But this was two for two down this week, and only a few more to go in the weeks to come, so Harry felt he could relax for the moment, especially since Sabrina wasn't upset that they hadn't told her before now.

Across the room Luna leaned over to Sirius. "You know, Harry always wanted a big family," she said.

Sirius just smiled at her and pulled her in for a side hug. Out of all of them, only Luna came from what could truly be considered a happy, loving family environment, but somehow they had managed to create one of their own.

"Sirius, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Yes of course. What is it, Harry?"

"How's your occlumency?"

"Not bad. Getting better since I got out. Why?"

"I'd like you to teach Ivy."

"Yeah, alright. You planning on telling her or something?"

Harry grimaced but nodded. "I told her about the prophecy already, but she's getting older. At some point I'm going to have to tell her everything, it's just…"

"Don't want a certain headmaster digging around?"

"Exactly. And I'd really prefer that he not find out she already knows about the prophecy even, if we can help it."

"And by extension the fact that you know about it."

"Pretty much."

"That's fair. Are you still planning on starting her on the patronus?"

"Yeah."

"You mind adding a few others to the lesson?"

Harry tilted his head a bit as he considered the question. "Who did you have in mind?"

"Blaise, Draco, and Neville to start."

Harry nodded though he was frowning slightly. "Why those three?"

Sirius shrugged. "Family," he said simply.

Harry nodded again. "I can't guarantee that anyone will actually get it, but it wouldn't hurt to at least start."

"Which means they'll probably all have it down by the time school starts," Sirius said, grinning.

Harry just rolled his eyes.

Sirius chuckled. "Well, if that's it, I'm off," he said, clapping his hands together.
Full moon tonight and all that."

"Yeah that's it. Go on, go turn into a puppy and howl at the moon."

Sirius stuck out his tongue in a way that did nothing to convince Harry that he was not, in fact, a puppy, and headed out to find Remus. Harry watched Sirius leave and then went off to find Luna. He had had a sudden stroke of inspiration that he needed to share with her.

Unfortunately Barty was there as well, but inspiration waits for no man to take a hint and leave, so Harry resigned himself to having this conversation with his accidentally acquired minion.

"I think we should become animagi," he said, getting straight to the point.

"We as in you and Luna or we as in me as well?" Barty asked with a frown.

"Luna and I, although you could do it as well if you wanted to…"

Barty shook his head. "How about I watch, and if it doesn't go horribly wrong I'll consider it, hmm?"

"Well I think it sounds fun. I've always wanted to be able to fly without a broom," Luna said.

"You have?" Harry was honestly surprised. Mostly at her apparent wish to fly, not so much at the assumption that she would have wings.

"There are all sorts of things you can see from the air, you know."

"And you can't see them from a broom?" Barty asked, not wholly sarcastically.

"Well, it's harder to pay attention when you have to focus on where you're going," Luna said, as if having wings meant you didn't have to worry about such mundane things as watching where you were going. Of course, Harry couldn't say for sure that it didn't mean that, although memories of scooping dead birds that had crashed into the Dursley's windows put a damper on that theory. Though again, Luna was smarter than those birds, so maybe it still held. But that was not the point he was trying to make at the moment. There would be plenty of time to figure that all out later when Luna ended up becoming some kind of bird. Or dragon. Who knew at this point, really.

"…thestrals over."

"You know, I could do without riding thestrals again," Harry said, his mind coming back to the conversation taking place.

"You said that about dragons too, you know."

"Technically I didn't actually ride that first one," Harry pointed out, because despite what many of his friends had assumed about him at some point or another, he did actually possesssomeself-preservation skills.

"And now we can all fly on brooms like normal, happy wizards, and witches," Barty said, nodding towards Luna, "and possibly become birds that fly around in the air, and not ride dangerous magical creatures that can kill us, hmm? Yes, let's do that. Great plan, Barty. Ten points to Hufflepuff."

"You were a Slytherin," Harry pointed out helpfully.

Barty shrugged. "Ivy got me hooked. Now, who is ready to stick some leaves in their mouth for the next month?"

"What? No, I can't start tonight," Harry protested.

"Why not? It's the full moon," Barty said, somewhat confused.

"Meeting Thursday," Luna said. Barty nodded. The little get together Thursday wasn't what Harry had meant when he said he couldn't start tonight, but it was still valid. It'd probably take a few days to get used to having a leaf stuck in your mouth after all, and it'd be nice to not have to talk to a lot of people during that time.

August 4, 1993

Harry looked at the four eager faces with a small amount of trepidation. He wasn't entirely convinced that they understood that mastering the patronus charm would take alotof time and practice.

"So that's all there is to it then?" Draco asked.

Yeah, not convinced at all.

"Yes, but you have to have averyhappy memory to work with, and you have to be concentrating on it very hard." Mostly. Sometimes. It was a good place to start at least.

"Great. So will you show us then?" asked Blaise.

Harry had been sad to see Prongs go, of course, but the panther that had emerged ever since arriving in this world was decent, especially when it got those wings. Much more intimidating than a stag, to be honest. Of course, Harry was trying to teach the kids, not scare them, so he made sure to underpowered the spell and presented them with an entirely wingless panther. Ivy, despite having seen the panther (with and without wings) many times, still cooed over how adorable it was. Honestly, it wasn't a dragon she was cooing at so he was fine. Neville and Draco each looked appropriately awed, and Harry puffed up slightly in spite of himself. At least someone thought he was cool, Padfoot.

Sirius had been awed the first time he saw Harry's patronus, but since then he had decided that it was somehow traitorous of Harry to have afelinepatronus. Harry personally didn't see how Sirius had a leg to stand on, given thathispatronus was a freaking frog, and he didn't buy into Sirius's whole argument that it was a symbol of "ancient wisdom" and all that rot. He did find it ironic that Sirius, who came from a family long associated with fire, had a patronus of an animal closely associated with water. It was fitting, somehow.

But Neville and Draco seemed to think it was cool, so there.

Blaise, however, was staring at Harry with a very peculiar look on his face. They made eye contact and stared each other down for what had to be at least a minute, before Blaise finally spoke.

"Um, so, where's you wand?"

Ivy looked smug for some reason, Neville and Draco both had jaws yielding to gravity, and Blaise was somehow maintaining a look that said both "innocent child" and "I know where you live."

"I, er…" Harry could not immediately find his wand. Which meant that he had cast the patronus without one. Completely on accident, to be sure, but still. There werepeoplehere. Small people, but all the same…

"Told you," Ivy said, holding out her hand.

Blaise lost a little bit of the innocent look and begrudgingly pulled something that looked suspiciously like a chocolate frog out of his pocket before handing it to Ivy.

"They bet on me," Harry said indignantly.

"And this surprises you how?" Remus asked.

"Oh come on, don't tell me they do this often?"

Remus gave Harry an unimpressed look.

"Please don't tell me they do this often."

"Bet on you? Probably not. Place bets on everyone else around them? Of course they do. They're teenagers. At Hogwarts. It's probably somewhere in the charter for all we know. Don't tell me you never made wagers about people when you went."

"But that's different. We made wagers about who would date who, but that was it, mostly. Besides that it was really only ever about the professors…"

Remus waited for the realization to sink in.

"I'm the adult in this situation, aren't I," Harry said with a bit of terror in his voice.

"Welcome to the party. Did you know that for the last two months of the year there was a wager going on in Ravenclaw about whether Snape and I were dating?"

The pure, unadulterated look of horror on Harry's face at that statement was definitely worth being saved for further viewing. Barty would probably get a kick out of it as well. Or Remus could save it for potential blackmail usage in the future. It's not like he had ever claimed to be a saint.

August 5, 1993

For what had to be at least the eleventh time in the past four days, Severus wondered how exactly he had gotten roped into this. It started somewhere along the lines of the sorting hat calling out "Slytherin" while on top of Ivy Potter's head and ended with Lucius, Narcissa, and Lupin all inviting him to this little "get together." The Dark Lord had meetings of his inner circle, Dumbledore had his staff meetings now that he no longer had the Order of the Phoenix, and Peverell-Slytherin apparently had afternoon tea. Well, to each their own, he supposed.

He had some veritaserum antidote on hand just in case his occlumency shields proved insufficient.

Walking up to Peverell-Slytherin's home, Severus contemplated turning around and simply walking away. What was he doing here, really? He had made a mistake with the Dark Lord once, tried to correct that mistake by going to Dumbledore, which had proved to be a mistake in the end as well, and now here he was, doing the same thing again. Merlin, it was like he never learned.

And neither did anyone else, it seemed. That or they all knew something he didn't, which was a possibility he did not like one bit. But how else could you explain such a varied, yet undoubtedly powerful, group of people? The assembled group contained everyone from former death eaters Lucius Malfoy and Alden Burke, to such Light supporters (and until now, presumed Dumbledore supporters) as Augusta Longbottom and Xenophilius Lovegood. Those were far from the only faces he recognized, however. The Greengrasses, the Harringtons, the Parkinsons, Westbrook, the Bromfords, the two eldest Deverill boys, Thorburn, Zabini, and, of course, Lupin and Black.

There were others too, but they were not familiar to Severus. That would need to be corrected.

Oh, and he had most definitely spoken too soon. Of all the… What wasMinervadoing here? AndFilius? And Merlin, was thatAndromeda Black? And both of her spawn. Lovely. And since when did Narcissa talk to her sister? That was something she had definitely failed to mention to him before now.

Severus was going to have to reassess his entire worldview after this. Again. He really hated doing that.

"Lucius, why are there so many people in my house?" Harry kept his tone polite, but he was about two seconds away from bursting and Lucius did not fail to catch on to that little fact.

"Well I believe Augusta and Roderick both took your words rather literally when you said to, and I quote, 'invite everyone.'"

Harry suppressed his groan. Shoved it way down deep where it could fester until this whole debacle was over and done with.

"Minerva, what are you doing here?" Severus whispered harshly.

"I was invited," she replied, looking not at all impressed by the question.

"Yes I gathered that, but bywhom?"

"By Augusta."

Well wasn't that a surprise. Albus was going to be terribly disappointed. How wonderful.

"It seems Lord Peverell-Slytherin is making quite the impact here, isn't he."

"You have no idea," Severus muttered under his breath. Well now he had to stay, just to satisfy his curiosity over whether or not Peverell-Slytherin would be able to maintain the current peace until the end of the meeting or not. Maybe he would, or maybe it would end in spell-fire and fiendfyre and disaster, in which case Severus would go through with his carefully constructed plan to leave England forever.

"You're looking… not entirely insane."

"Good to see you too, Sev," Barty said with a wink. Severus scowled back at him, making Barty grin. He hadn't lost his touch one bit; Severus was as easy to rile up as ever.

"Perhaps I spoke too quickly."

"Nope. I'm here and perfectly sane."

"Have you thought to ask for a second opinion?"

Barty went to deliver a no doubt scathing and absolutely perfect retort, but the clearing of a throat made him pause, and a glance at the owner of said throat made him give up his plans entirely. At least Severus looked every bit as cowed as Barty felt, he thought, or maybe cackled, to himself.

Once Lady Longbottom was sufficiently far enough away, Barty watched Severus closely for any sign of a reaction. The potion master's tells were few and difficult to spot unless you knew what to look for, but Barty knewexactlywhat to look for.

Ah, and there it was. An almost imperceptible shudder. Most likely it would have gone unnoticed by nearly anyone else, but Bartyknew, and he smirked at Severus accordingly.

"I lied to the Dark Lord's face," Severus whispered. Barty wasn't entirely sure if he had meant to speak at all. Probably not, if the sudden glare was anything to go by. "Not a single…"

Barty waved him off. "Not a word, I know. Pain of death and all that."

"It would be untraceable."

"Of course."

"No one would ever know."

"I would expect nothing less."

Harry was busy repeating "don't glare at your guests, don't glare at your guests," over and over, and was thus too preoccupied to notice the way everyone was making their way into the temporarily enlarged parlor and taking their seats in such a way that he was left standing in front of them all. When he did realize, it was awkward, and he looked around for someone to turn the attention on instead of himself. What he got was Sirius and Luna both giving him a thumbs up, which was not particularly helpful, yet was still encouraging. Correction. Luna's was encouraging. Sirius got a small, wandless stinging hex for his part.

Harry cleared his throat before turning and facing his audience face on.

"Well then, shall we begin?"

"You know, he doesn't actually realize it yet."

"What?"

Barty chuckled. "Harry. He doesn't realize what he's done. Not this part of it at least."

Severus resisted the urge to smack Barty and instead settled for pinching the bridge of his nose. "Dare I ask…" he muttered. "What part of this," he said, gesturing vaguely around them, "has he not realized precisely?"

"Oh, mostly the fact that he's taken over Britain. The magical portion, at least, although if he tried he could probably do the muggle part too. I'm pretty sure that was in the book somewhere."

"What book?"

Barty winced at that. Interesting. Something he wasn't supposed to reveal, perhaps? Although Barty wasn't the type of person to make mistakes like that, which meant that he most likely wanted Severus to know, but wanted either Severus or Peverell-Slytherin, or perhaps both, tothinkit was an accident, perhaps because he feared their reactions, or wanted to claim innocence, or maybe he wanted to pique Severus's curiosity (done and done) so that he would investigate this, though for what reason he could not yet say, and no he was not overthinking this too much.

It was a perfectly reasonable train of thought.

It was also easier to pay attention to than the part where Barty had said that not only had "call-me-Harry" Peverell-Slytherin taken over wizarding Britain, but he had done so onaccident. Becausewhat? Even Ivy Potter, who was looking well on her way to a world takeover of her own, had to have hadsomeidea of what she was doing. Severus had heard mention of her "theoretical plans," even if she didn't seem to realize how much she had already done in her first two years at Hogwarts and… Oh Merlin, it came from somewhere. Did that mean they were actually related?

Too many mysteries for one day. He should have stayed home.

Simon Parkinson was going on about something to do with Fudge and some change he had made to some department or other, and honestly Harry hadn't been listening to half of it, though admittedly he probably should have, but it seemed thateveryonehad something to add. It was like they were all doing a report for the class and…

Oh, Harry suppressed that thought with impressive speed.

"Sorry to interrupt, but what's this have to do with the dementors?"

Parkinson seemed flustered, and Harry immediately felt bad. It wasn't Simon's fault that Harry hadn't been paying close enough attention.

"Sorry," Harry said quickly. "I think I'm just not as quick on the uptake, apparently."

Harry was met with several blank stares. Right. Muggle idioms. Oops.

"Er, I mean that I'm just not following as well, sorry. Could we um," Harry cleared his throat awkwardly, internally willing this moment to be over, "could we maybe just back up a little?"

Simon regained his composure and a couple curious stares that were still lingering on Harry finally moved.

"Of course. I apologize."

Harry waved him off. "My fault. Please, continue."

Amar Patil leaned over to his older friend. "He is not what I was expecting."

"No?"

Amar shook his head. "I would have thought he would be more…" He trailed off, gesturing vaguely to convey his meaning.

"Forceful?"

Amar let out an amused huff. "Something of that sort, I suppose."

"Well, he is Canadian," came Tristram Brown's reply.

"Ah, well I suppose that explains it."

"Indeed," Tristram said with a wry smile, which Amar matched before turning serious again.

"And you support him?"

The Brown patriarch's answer was not immediate, but when it came it was spoken with conviction. "Yes, I do."

Amar nodded, knowing Tristram would not given such a declaration of support without good cause.

"Besides," his friend continued, mirth returning once more, "you have to admit he's a bit better than the last few."

Amar couldn't help but chuckle at that. Peverell-Slytherin was certainly that.

Severus felt his eye about to twitch and he let it. "Please tell me you were joking earlier," he asked Barty softly.

"Nope," Barty said with a smug grin.

Severus was going to have to have a very serious talk with Lucius after this. Surely at least he and Narcissa were aware of what was going on, right? He needed someone less irritating than Barry Crouch whatever-his-name-was-now to discuss this with.

Harry had successfully managed to suppress and ignore any and all hints about what this meeting was turning out to be, or perhaps what some people had actually intended it to be, but he could do so no longer. Not when several of his guest's farewells had been so… deferential. Harry poked his head around the corner to see who was still left, and, deciding that the people left were acceptable enough for the occasion, stalked back into the parlor, letting the glare he had been keeping at bay all afternoon finally shine through like a small, angry ray of sunshine. Okay, bad analogy. He was a little preoccupied at the moment.

"Anyone care to explain to me what in Merlin's name just happened?"

Harry spoke softly but his tone left no room for question. Someone was going to explain this, preferably now, because based on the mixed guilty, gleeful, and knowing looks, at least some of these people knew something.

Well, might as well go for the easiest target first.

"Sirius," Harry said sweetly. "Have anything you want to share?"

Sirius's slightly guilty expression , Harry thought.

"Er, congratulations?"

And here came the eye twitch. "And what would these congratulations be for, Padfoot?"

"For, um, for getting some more followers?"

Was it possible for your eye to spasm all the way out of your eye socket? Well, Harry had never been one to lead a normal existence… "And what makes you think I have 'followers?'" Harry asked, providing the air quotes to show exactly what he thought of that term.

Except now Sirius, Remus, and Lucius all looked confused. Great. When this was done he would be asking Luna and Ivy about moving to Brazil. Again. Fifty third time's the charm and all that.

"Because you took over magical Britain?" Sirius said, as if it were obvious.

Harry had purposefully been ignoring all hints that lay even moderately in that direction so no, that was not obvious. "I did what now?"

"You took over? I mean, you're not really a dark lord, and you're not exactly a light lord, so maybe a nice shade of grey? Or maybe green, with the whole Slytherin thing going on, but you know what? It doesn't matter. You could have any color you wanted, I suppose. I…"

Harry held up a hand. "So you mean to tell me…" Harry paused for effect even as Sirius began nodding along, "that we…"

"You."

"Sorry?"

Remus cleared his throat. "Uh, just you, Harry."

If this kept up they might just beat Ivy's record for most eye twitches that he knew she kept somewhere.

"Alright, thatItook over Britain."

Nods all around.

"Without realizing it."

More nods.

"And no one thought to tell me?"

"I thought youknew," came Sirius's protest.

One twitch closer to that record. He wondered if anyone had been keeping score.

"Well you are doing a lovely job of it," said Luna. At least someone was on his side.

"You'll be fine, dear," said Augusta. He needed all the encouragement he could get.

"I can't believe this," muttered Severus. Oh this could potentially be awkward.

Barty grinned, and Harry was unable to glare him down.

"So are you going to tell them?"

Harry groaned and threw himself facedown on the bed. "Do you want to do it for me?"

"If you'd like."

The fact that Luna was even willing made Harry look up at her with a smile. "I love you and you are the best."

"Yes."

"So tomorrow?"

"It's a date."

Not his ideal date per se, but Luna made everything better, so spilling his life story to the Malfoys and Snape would be better with her too. And Sirius, Remus, and Barty because frankly they owed him.