InsaneJournal

NaNo FanFic Part 15
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Pairings this part: past Luna/Rolf Scamander
Rating: PG
Notes: cracktastic!  I had a really hard time not deleting huge chunks of this part.  Mm, Nano. 
BONUS: Now illustrated! See bottom of post.


November 2001, London, International Floo Arrivals Atrium

Harry wiped his brow as he made his way through the crowds of the International Floo Arrivals Atrium to the special clearance door. He resolved that next time his presence was urgently but secretly requested abroad, he would insist on a younger and more fit Polyjuiced body. The one he was in seemed to do nothing but sweat. Still, this was a better option than appearing with his own face. He had a job to do, and couldn't do it when he was under siege by well-meaning but incredibly annoying admirers, or on guard against the odd personal attack that still peppered his days, even three years after Voldemort's final defeat.

He bumped into a slender woman in black as he threaded through the crowd, and she dropped her bag. Harry paused to be sure she retrieved it without difficulty, and realized as she knelt to re-attach a strap that he knew her. "Luna?" Then he remembered that he had another ten minutes under the Polyjuice, at least.

Luna looked up as the strap locked back into place and blinked. "Oh, hello, Harry."

Harry ran a hand over his borrowed hair and confirmed that, yes, he was still Polyjuiced into a thirty-seven-year-old muggle with a blond ponytail. "Merlin, Luna, how do you do that?"

Luna stood up and swung her bag over her shoulder. She looked different. Harry hadn't seen her since Draco's wedding two weeks earlier, and before that at the Monthly Dinner Club. In fact, now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen her outside of Dinner Club since before he had completed Auror Training. Harry usually thought of Luna as a bit ethereal, fairy-like in flowing dress robes or simply dresses with no shoes. Now she cut an intimidating figure all in black, a trenchcoat belted close around her waist, tall black leather boots with old-fashioned side buttons and flared heels, her hair tucked up under a smart felt cap except for a few trailing curls. The Ravenclaw scarf was the only spot of color at all, peeking from the collar of her coat.

"Oh," she said, "I think I'd recognize you in any body. You're very distinctive." She didn't look at him, though, as she spoke, and rubbed her face with her free hand as if she were tired.

Harry glanced around the room, where the traffic had parted around the obstacle the two of them presented, and grimaced. "Thank goodness the rest of the Wizarding world isn't so discerning. Here, let me help you through the lines. Least I can do."

Luna gave him an odd look, but allowed him to take her elbow and steer her toward the special clearance room, where he would be able to pause to allow the Polyjuice to wear off before taking a less crowded exit to the street.

The Auror at the door to the warded area gave Luna an obviously admiring once-over as she approached, and that prompted an irrational anger in Harry, for no reason he could understand. His fingers tightened on Luna's elbow. As they reached the door, the Auror automatically brought up his wand, and Harry let his own Auror-identification and passport fall into his palm to show. Harry's Auror ID had no photo, but was keyed, like his passport, to his magical signature and would only be green and legible in his own hand.

"Auror Potter," the guard acknowledged, looking from Harry's Polyjuiced face to Luna. "And guest?"

Luna had her passport ready, Harry was happy to see, and flipped it open with one hand to present. The guard's wand tapped it once, confirming its legitimacy and inscribing the magical stamp that indicated she had entered the United Kingdom through the London Atrium. Luna turned the page so that she could see the stamp as Harry led her through the door. Within the special clearance area were three square tables, a collection of mismatched chairs, one double door painted institutional green with a window in each side, and five single, solid doors in one wall, each with a large red square above the knob.

"Give me five minutes," Harry said as Luna transfigured one of the crooked chairs into something more comfortable. "I'll be right back."

Harry opened one of the red-labeled doors and entered the cubicle beyond, which existed really only to give Polyjuiced Ministry arrivals a place to revert back to themselves and change clothes. Harry tried not to examine his motives too deeply as he chose Muggle-style clothes similar to Luna's from his own bag, then shrank the bag down to pocket-sized again. His travel cloak he transfigured into a lightweight black pea coat. Luckily his Polyjuice counterpart had the same shoe size so he didn't have to bother changing his shoes. Somehow the shoes were always the most annoying part of Polyjuice for him now that he had to use it for frequent trips to the International Court in Paris.

When he emerged from the changing room, Harry Potter in the flesh, although a bit scruffier than usual, he found Luna curled into a deep armchair, one booted foot hanging over the side. She was halfway through a muggle paperback with a lurid, blood-spattered cover and a Dracula-esque vampire profile on the back. "Good book?" he asked as he reached her table.

"Did you know that Muggles believe the bite of a vampire is painless and brings the victim a sense of sexual bliss, even completion?"

Harry was very glad that Luna did not look up from her book as she asked her question in that soft, pensive voice; he could feel himself blushing. And that was odd, because he could hold his own in the raunchy joke category with his buddies with no problem. The thing was, this was Luna, who had somehow never seemed quite so earthy as that before.

Now, of course, the question made Harry notice the way her stocking had slipped down under the top of her boot, leaving a sliver of pale skin visible between the leather and the hem of her coat. He took a deep breath. "I'd heard that. Never read any of that stuff myself."

Luna closed the book and stood up, slipping it into the pocket of her bag. "Mm, that's much better," she said as she took in his restored appearance. She reached out to brush his hair away from his eyes. Harry could count on the fingers of one hand the number of women he knew who dared even try to touch him like that, so freely and casually.

"Do you have plans for the evening, Luna? Or can I walk you home?" Harry didn't want to let her out of his sight, even though he knew that she was only a Floo-call or Owl away at any given moment. Why had he never taken more time with her before?

To his dismay, she laughed at his offer, shaking her head. "That's sweet of you, but I don't live in London. It's a long walk to Devon. I was planning to Floo from the Leaky Cauldron."

"I was sure you had a local flat. You walked home from all those Dinner Clubs."

"Mm." Luna's smile turned a bit sheepish as she took his arm and turned them toward the exit. "Rolf has a townhouse in London, and I was practically living there until Easter."

"Rolf? You never brought him round." Harry was sure that he had heard the name before. "Wait, is he the beetle guy?"

"The beetle guy?" Luna pushed open the door to the outside, giving Harry a look he could not quite interpret over her shoulder as she pulled him along. "Yes, I suppose he is. He'll love that, I'll have to tell him at the book party."

There was a miserable drizzle outside that never quite made it to true rain. It gave Harry a good excuse to pull his hat from his pocket and tug it low on his forehead, obscuring his scar. He had never met this Rolf person, but he didn't like the sound of a man with a townhouse in London, with whom Luna had been living. He'd bet Ginny knew more about it than he did.

"But you aren't living with him anymore?" Harry was pants at subtlety.

Luna leaned on his arm as they turned a corner on the pavement. "Not since Easter. Had to go back home, since even with an article each week I could never make London rent. Not even in a Muggle flat!" She appeared perfectly cheerful about that, but with Luna it was sometimes hard to tell. They paused at a crosswalk and she looked up at him. "Harry. Where are we going?"

"Oh. Er," Harry floundered a bit, looking around to get his bearings.

Luna leaned closer, to whisper in his ear. "This is the part when you invite me home for tea."

Harry knew he was blushing now, but with such an invitation as she presented, he could do nothing else. "Would you like to come back to Grimmauld Place for tea?"

"I'd love to."

"Then we should turn around." Harry pivoted, and Luna clung to his arm, laughing and swinging around him in three steps. He wanted to keep her smiling just like that for as long as possible. "It's a bit of a walk."

"If you can stand to be seen with me, I'm sure we'll manage," Luna said, tucking her hand more firmly at his elbow. He matched his stride to hers. It was turning out to be a beautiful day.


Illustration: Harry and Luna walking in Grimmauld Square.

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