Thursday, November 16, 2017
Harry was sitting in his rooms, brooding, as usual, when he was startled by several sharp raps on his door. He looked up, intending to tell whoever it was to go away, but froze when a rainbow burst into his room.
That the only way he could think of describe the vision that Luna made, breezing through his (locked) door, dressed in layers of multi-hued gauzy fabric with trailing sleeves and a full skirt, hiked up to reveal bare feet and surprisingly knobby knees. Trailing vines and vibrant flowers twined across the canvas of her skin, the magical tattoos moving constantly as if blowing in the wind. Her hair floated around her, weighted down by bits of shell and feathers, and dozens of silver bangles encircled her thin wrists, accentuating their frailty. She was almost etherial, and her smile shone like the sun.
Harry tore his eyes from her eclectic beauty and turned to frown at the door, sure that he'd locked it.
"Oh, yes," she said, voice light and musical, "it was locked."
"Er. How did you get in?" Harry kicked himself for sounding so unwelcome, but he'd grown used to his dreary solitude, and Luna was anything but.
She arched one delicate eyebrow, her eyes - an impossible shade midway between silver and blue - sparkling. "Why, I opened it, of course."
Harry stared at her, at a loss for words. Eventually he gathered enough wits to say, faintly, "Luna... what is it you do, exactly?" He was starting to suspect that the answer would be that she couldn't tell him - that she worked for the department of Mysteries. If anyone could understand Luna, he supposed they could.
Luna's laughter, airy and tinkling, echoed through the small room. "Oh, Harry. I look for rare and magical creatures. They are very good at hiding, you know. They have to be, or they would have been found long ago."
Harry didn't know where to start. Luckily, with Luna, that wasn't a problem. She could carry on her bizarre conversation perfectly well on her own.
"Take Crumple-Horned Snorkacks, for example," she said earnestly, taking a seat on the scrounged side table; Harry winced at the ominous creak, but relaxed when it seemed perfectly content to be used as a chair. "Took me years to figure out what sort of riddles they use to hide their colonies, then another few to work out how to answer them."
Harry couldn't tell if she was serious or not, and decided that the safest bet would be to take her words at face value. He resumed his seat by the fire, turning so he was facing her.
"And you, er, found them, did you?"
Luna beamed. "Oh, yes! Well, they'd already moved on by then, of course. But the signs were there. Next time, I'll have them for sure."
"Er," said Harry.
"You've a worse case of Wrackspurts than Draco, Harry! Goodness." Luna peered anxiously up at him, batting at the air by his face.
Harry scowled, and he could feel his features hardening. "If that's what you're here for, Luna, you may as well give up now."
"Oh, Harry..." Luna shook her head. "The Wrackspurts are worse than I thought. They're really clouding your vision. Here." She whipped her wand out from behind her ear and shot a quick succession of spells at his face.
Harry blinked.
"There." She nodded, apparently satisfied, and stowed her wand. "That's a start, anyway."
"Er... Luna," Harry said, feeling distinctly wrong-footed, "What did you just do?"
"Oh, I just removed some of the spell residue from your lenses. You really ought to get those lenses cleaned more often, you know."
Harry took them off, blinked nearsightedly at them. "Er. Thanks." They did look a bit clearer. Maybe. The sparkles her spell had left around the edges of his vision made it hard to tell.
"I put a few Nargle and Wrackspurt repelling wards on them too."
Harry rolled his eyes. "Of course you did."
"You're welcome!" she said brightly. "Anyway, I've got to meet Nev for lunch, but you should really come and visit us sometime Harry."
"Us?"
She grinned. "Oh, yes. Ginny, Astoria, Pansy, and Hermione are all here. And me, of course. Didn't they tell you?"
"No?" Harry felt rather put-out.
"Hmm. Well, you have been rather difficult to find. We're staying in Hogsmeade."
"At the Three Broomsticks?"
"Goodness, no. Whatever would give you that idea?"
Harry tried to think of where else they might stay, not sure he entirely believed that they were there at all.
"No, silly," she said, when it became clear that Harry wasn't going to offer anything else. "We've rented a house."
"Er. How long are you staying?"
"Oh, Nev invited us for the rest of the school year. He's implementing a new muggle art studies class, you see, and needed teachers and advisors for the trial run. We were all free - mostly - and we all have experience with muggle arts. It's quite brilliant, really.
"I see," Harry said weakly.
Luna beamed at him. "Oh, and Harry?" she said, standing up and smoothing her diaphanous skirts, "You might use a stronger keyword on your door. That one was rather obvious."
She sent him a pitying glance and then breezed out of his room, leaving him feeling disoriented and a bit lost.
---
Friday, November 17
Harry strode across the Hogwarts grounds, hands stuffed into his pockets, chin tucked into his flannel scarf. It was cold, now. The overcast sky was a leaden gray, and it reflected dully in the inky water. There was no sign of the giant squid today; the surface of the lake was smooth, placid. He'd thought that, if he could just sit beside it for a bit, he could train his mind to mimic the lake, soak up some of that icy tranquility. He was almost to the water's edge when he heard the shout behind him.
"Harry!"
He sighed, hunching his shoulders as he turned back toward the castle.
"Hi, Gin," he said weakly. He'd been trying to sneak out for a quick sulk during lunch, but of course Ginny had known just where to find him. She knew his habits far too well - he supposed she'd have to, after nearly two decades - but he'd always found it a bit disconcerting. He should, he supposed, find it more worrisome, now that they weren't together, but he couldn't really see her using the knowledge against him. Then he remembered that, of all her brothers, she resembled the twins most of all... and that she was, according to Luna, currently shacked up with Astoria Greengrass, notorious prankster in her own right, who had spent the past two decades married to Draco Malfoy. Suddenly, he found himself wondering how much he'd have to change his habits if he wanted to avoid her.
"Hullo, Harry," she said, far too cheerfully for such a dreary November day. A stray gust of wind, seemingly wishing to prove him right, chose that moment to fling her hair into his face. "Oh, dear," Ginny said, as he pried the fragrant strands from his mouth.
At one time, the scent of Ginny's shampoo had driven him wild. At least, he thought it had. Whatever he had once felt, now it only made him tired. He felt his shoulders sagging as the weight of the past several years all seemed to hit him at once.
Ginny, on the other hand, looked young and carefree. Divorce agreed with her, he thought, or maybe it was just being free of him, or the vigor brought on by the thrill of a new relationship. He envied her that, and the sudden stab of jealousy in his gut threatened to drive him to his knees. Something must have shown in his face, for her smile turned worried. "Harry? Are you all right?"
"Yeah. Fine." He knew he was being curt, but he couldn't seem to help it. Ginny seemed to understand, though, or at least chose not to comment on it.
"All right. Well, I have to go - I have a meeting with Nev and the others in a few minutes." She hesitated. "You know, Harry, you're welcome to come and have dinner with us sometime."
He frowned. "Won't you be eating in the Great Hall?"
She snorted, shoving his shoulder playfully. "As if. I'm not that keen to relive my youth, thanks very much. We - the girls and I - we're staying in Hogsmeade. Luna said she told you..."
Harry blushed, chagrined. "I, uh, may not have believed her, quite."
Ginny laughed. "I suppose it must have seemed rather far-fetched. But surely Al told you? He and his friends helped us move in. They've been by several times, now."
Harry looked down, dragging the toe of his shoe through the fallen leaves. "I...I guess I haven't seen much of Al, lately."
Ginny huffed, exasperated, and put her hands on her hips, startling Harry with her uncanny resemblance to her mother. "You're telling me that you haven't seen much of your son - your son who goes to the same school you teach at? Who has you for a teacher several days a week? Harry..." She rolled her eyes. "I know these last few months have been rough for you, Harry, but you're going to have to learn to live again sometime."
He scowled. "I know how to live."
She dropped her head to his shoulder for a moment in an awkward half-hug. "Well, Harry," she said gently, "maybe it's time you started, then." She smiled sadly at him. "I really do have to go, now, but... please, Harry. We really would love to see you." She turned away, looking smaller, somehow, than when she'd first called out to him. After a few steps, she turned back, the fire returning to her eyes. "And for Merlin's sake, spend some time with your son!"
She strode back toward the castle, hair streaming out behind her like a flaming banner, leaving Harry to stand alone, and just a bit sad, at the edge of the lake. He stood there, hands stuffed in his pockets against the chill, watching the dead leaves swirl along the shore in the fickle breeze, until it was time for him to go back, attempt to plaster a smile on his face, and instruct a bunch of restless teenagers in a subject that had once been life and death for him, and was now reduced to dry words on the pages of history.