InsaneJournal

NaNo FanFic Part 24
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Pairings this part: Harry/Luna, implied Remus/Severus
Rating: PG-13
Notes: I made up monsters. Whee.  :)

September 2008, Orchard's End, Devon

The house sometimes felt haunted to Luna, even though there were no actual ghosts.  She and Harry had not yet made all the changes they hoped for, and there were moments when Luna could feel the lives of the previous occupants in the fabric on the walls. Once the house had belonged to Muggles, and their particular trials stood apart from the Wizarding lives that followed. She dreamed of children running through the halls, of long fevers and motionless portraits, of roosting owls and blossoming fruit trees, of broken broomsticks and new wands. She dreamed of endless days of warm rain. 

She wondered what Harry dreamed in this house; he had not woken her with his nightmares in many weeks.

Sometimes she heard the walls whisper their stories, tales of birth and death and everything in between. She stood in the parlor stroking one such wall with gentle fingertips when the Floo burst into life.  The parlor Floo was not hooked up to many others; their public Floo connection was in the foyer at the far end of the house away from the family areas. Luna did not look up, simply called, "Who is it?" 

"Teddy! And Papa Severus! Can we come through?"  The boy's excitement made Luna smile as she traced the paisley pattern across the wall. 

"Of course," Luna said. 

The fire flared for a moment, and Luna heard Severus's familiar voice intoning cleaning spells.  She didn't look up from the wall covering. 

"Luna, Luna!" Teddy cried, running up to her. 

"Yes?"  Luna put her hand out blindly, finding Teddy's arm beside her.  She had expected to find his shoulder; when had he gotten so tall? 

She felt Severus come up behind her. "Mrs. Potter.  I see your husband was correct in his concerns." 

Harry had concerns for her?  That he shared with Severus of all people?  Luna forced her eyes from the wall. Teddy was grinning up at her. "Dad said that I can have one of Mathilde's new litter when they're weaned," the boy said.

Luna turned to look over her shoulder at Severus.  "You're sure?" Mathilde, as Ron had whimsically named the kneazle, had been one of the special bonuses that came with the house and barn.

Severus shrugged.  "He requires a familiar for Hogwarts."  The man looked meaningfully at Teddy, who took hold of Luna's hand.  "When is the last time you sat down, Mrs. Potter?" 

"Won't you call me Luna?" Luna asked as she allowed Teddy to pull her away from the wall, to the rocking chair in the corner.  Teddy tugged her hand very gently to get her to sit down. 

"Luna, then," Severus said gravely. "Have you had a domestic curse-breaker in to look at the house?" 

Luna shook her head.  "Harry and Ron went over it before we moved in." 

Severus snorted, pushing his hair behind his ear, and put his hand on Teddy's shoulder. Luna leaned back and allowed her chair to begin to rock.  Her eyes drifted closed as she listened to the story in the walls, and her hands curved over the slight roundness of her belly.

She heard Severus speaking quietly to Teddy, another whisper in the chorus. "Teddy, I want you to tell Luna about your latest junior Quidditch match. Or your trip to your grandmother's. Keep her attention, that is vital. She should not sleep. Do you understand?" 

"Yes, sir.  Is the house haunted after all?" Teddy sounded excited at the prospect.

"Not precisely haunted.  There is a parasite here that endangers the family.  I will instruct you in its identification and elimination when we return home.  For now, remember, do not let Luna sleep." 

Luna rocked and felt the baby move inside her. Teddy's voice spoke to her, but she heard only one word in ten, perhaps, enough to know he spoke of Quidditch.  "And Ginny showed me how... famous maneuver... they never saw it coming... Beaters dodged but we got in anyhow..."  

Severus's voice overrode Teddy's, when he spoke again.  He must have re-activated the Floo.  "No, don't tell Potter, he'll come rushing home and we'll have two of them to deal with.  They have at least one active Phoberos living in their walls.  He as much as told me it has its claws in him already, he cannot come back to the house until the oneirophage is destroyed."  Severus paused, and Teddy's voice filled the gap, tales of Bludgers and Quaffles and Ginny's tutoring.  After another few sentences of Teddy's commentary, Severus's voice rose.  "I thought he was in Egypt already.  Fine.  We won't have to reset the wards that way."

The sound of the flames changed twice more as the Floo opened. Teddy stopped talking and pulled at her hand.  Luna let the boy tug at her without bothering to move herself.  Inertia was in her favor, unless Teddy grew a head taller in the next two minutes.  Belatedly the thought came to her that an open Floo meant someone had gone, or arrived.  She opened her eyes. Behind the boy, two new visitors were banishing the ash from her fireplace. Remus had on his Ministry robes; Luna was certain he should be at work today.  Or was it a holiday?  Full moon wasn't for a week yet.  And Bill, too, seemed out of place in her parlor.  It was autumn, the leaves were turning outside the window.  Bill did not belong in England when the leaves were turning.  It was all very wrong, but she could not summon the energy to be too upset. 

The house did not like these men who filled her parlor with their power and presence.  The echoes of children's voices and running footsteps through the upstairs halls filled her mind, and she felt the parlor walls contract around her in protest.

She pinched the inside of her wrist and came suddenly, fully awake.  Teddy stopped tugging at her hand and tried to lever her out of the chair by the shoulder.  "Luna, you have to stand up now," he said with an increased urgency.

"This is very wrong..." she ventured, although her sudden fatigue made her wonder if it was worth the effort to stand.  "The walls are angry." 

Remus was suddenly there beside her in Teddy's place, his hands under her arms, lifting her bodily from the chair and setting her on her feet.  "Luna?"  He looked her in the eye, and she blinked at him. 

"Remus?"

"Good girl.  How do you feel?"

"Exhausted.  Confused.  But - I didn't know you were coming.  I should make tea."  She had been tired for weeks now; the mediwitch had said to expect it.  She had hoped that Harry would have more energy, but his days at work seemed just as draining as hers. 

"Yes. Tea will be fine," Severus cut in, appearing over Remus's shoulder.  "Teddy, help Luna in the kitchen."

Teddy took her hand again, and Luna let him lead her out of the room.  She looked back just before she crossed the threshold, wondering why Bill was painting over her lovely walls with his own symbols.  She would ask him when she served tea.

"I do like the walls," she said as Teddy filled the kettle with water and set it over the flame.  She ran her hand over Teddy's curls, which turned from their usual tawny brown to tourquoise under her fingers.  "You didn't finish the story of your Quidditch match.  You had just scored with Ginny's signature move."  The kitchen was an easier room in which to think; it reminded her of her childhood home, all bare polished wood and stone. 

Teddy grinned and began his tale again, this time accompanying it with louder narration, re-enactments using kitchen utensils, and much changing of his facial expressions now that he knew she was really paying attention. 

He kept her awake and alert with his chatter for a good hour and a half and two pots of tea, before the kitchen alarm sounded that another person had arrived by the parlor Floo. Quite abruptly Luna felt a wave of new fatigue.  She put her head down on the table, unable to keep her eyes open even in the din Teddy was making, shouting the house down for one of his fathers to come quick.  

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