InsaneJournal

Advent Story: The Return (PG)
Title: The Return
Author: zephre
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 1350
Characters/Pairing: Harry/Luna, OCs, mention of Rolf Scamander
Disclaimer: not my characters, no profit intended, just fan fun
Prompt: #14: fruitcake
A/N: written for adventdrabbles.  OMG, it's like the Drabble That Ate Cincinnati!  This follows a year on from Children's Christmas


A wonderful aroma filled the entire ground floor of 12 Grimmauld Place as Luna let herself in the front door.  She clutched the handles of her traveling cases and just stood there, inhaling deeply, for a moment.  Someone had been baking.

A great thumping noise came from the upper floors as at least four sets of feet came running down the stairs.  A pair of black boots with pink laces came into view first on the landing, followed quickly by the rest of Juliet Nott. "Miss Luna!" she cried happily when she saw who had arrived.  

Her brother Andrew appeared next, then the three Wainwright brothers, and they all came to a stop in comical order up the stairs, staring at her in much less cheerful surprise.  

"Harry said you weren't coming back," Gilderoy Wainwright said cautiously. "He said you'd be gone this year and we weren't to be cross with you in our letters."

Luna thought she might cry at the looks on their faces, but she smiled through it. "How could I leave you all?" she asked. "It just wouldn't be Christmas otherwise."  

Juliet broke into a wide grin. "I knew it. I knew you wouldn't really go." But the looks of relief and joy on the children's faces revealed just how much they had feared it. They rushed forward off the stairs to hug her, and she dropped her bags. They made a bit more noise hitting the floor than she had expected, and the door at the end of the hall swung open.

Harry, one hand still raised from pushing the door, his entire person liberally dusted with flour, was already speaking. "What in Merlin's name is going on out - oh." Then he stopped and just stood there, staring at Luna as the children took turns hugging her in welcome. She stared over their heads at Harry, equally silent. The sight of him made her heart stutter in her chest, and she felt the disdain in his regard as physical pain. She had believed that nothing could be a greater agony than living here as his friend and business partner, aching for more while knowing it was impossible.

Now she knew that there was something worse.

When the last of the boys had squeezed the breath from Luna and stepped back, Harry cleared his throat.  "Ashby," he said, "why don't you take Luna's bags up to her room.  The rest of you go, ah, check the table settings, and ask Kreacher to add a chair for Miss Luna." 

Juliet looked from Luna to Harry with too much knowledge for Luna's peace of mind, but the girl went obediently up to the dining room with the rest. 

Harry ran a hand through his hair, leaving streaks of white in his fingers' wake, and sighed. "Come back to the kitchen? We can . . . talk while I finish up." 

Luna was curious, as Harry did not usually do the cooking, but she agreed that this conversation was best held in privacy.  She followed him to the back of the house, and there she found the source of the wonderful smell that filled the place.

The kitchen table was covered with small, delicate rounds of pastry - fruitcakes of varying shape and composition.  If she counted, she was certain there would be one for each child currently in residence.

Harry picked up a sieve and a canister from the table, and began dusting the cakes nearest him. Luna came up beside him, pressed her finger into the white dust on the table top, and tasted it.  Powdered sugar. Harry continued with his task in silence as Luna pressed her finger again onto the table.  This time there was more flour than sugar, but it was still sweet.

"What happened to Sweden?" he asked at last, his eyes on the sieve he was shaking.

Luna sighed and sat down on the long bench that had been pushed against the far wall. "Rolf met me at the International Floo Terminal in Helsinki, and we got all the way to the lodge, but then I couldn't actually go inside." She let her head fall back against the wood, feeling the wainscoting press into her back and arms. "It was so beautiful, Harry, the snow and ice glittering in the fading daylight, and the lodge lit up and welcoming, it was like something out of a book, impossibly perfect. Rolf kept going on about the plans he'd made, and how much he knew I'd love everything, and he never shut up long enough for me to think, until we got there. He kept telling me how much I would enjoy the change, not having dozens of children demanding my time, being free to do my research without interruption, not being beholden to anyone for my room and board. He didn't understand at all. And he said that you-" Luna paused. She could not actually bring herself to repeat Rolf's words about Harry. She looked at him, messy and angry and beautiful, and when he looked across the table to meet her eyes she did not flinch from the chill she saw there.

He turned away to finish his work and put the canister back in the cabinet, and Luna closed her eyes.  She heard the rattling that must be the sieve and assorted dishes going into the sink, and the quiet murmur of charms to preserve the cakes until dessert was served.

"I wanted to be here more," she whispered into the silence as Harry's spellcasting ended. "It all felt wrong, being away from y- the children, and the house. I just wanted to be home for Christmas, even if -" she took a shaky breath, "even if I've ruined everything else, made you hate me, and you don't want me here once it's over."

A cabinet door slammed, and she jumped, opening her eyes.  Harry had his back to her, leaning heavily on the countertop. "Damn it, Luna," he said with unnerving calm, as if they were discussing the menu. "You left us. I will never send you away. Never. You left."

Luna stood up, unable to let the accusation pass. "I asked for a real holiday, Harry, the first I've ever asked in two years, and you decided it meant I was abandoning my home. Don't make this all about me."

"What was I to think? The man wanted to steal you away, he flaunted it, and why wouldn't you go off to have your own life like everyone else? It would have been nice if it hadn't been such a surprise, is all."

Luna stared at Harry's back in astonishment. "Rolf wanted - but he never said anything to me! It was one week, Harry, one week's house party with an incredible guest list and I was coming home!"

Harry turned around, leaning on the counter with his arms crossed tightly over his chest. "He told me not to expect you back, to look for a new 'mother hen' he called it." He scowled, but Luna saw a hint of warmth in his eyes now, buried beneath the hurt.

Luna reached across and laid her fingers on his forearm. He flinched. She gripped his arm more tightly.  "You fought like that because you believed him?" She took his silence for answer.  "Oh, Harry. I thought you knew me better than that."

Harry shrugged, refusing to look her in the eye now.  He stared at her hand on his arm. "People do crazy things when they're in love."

"Yes," Luna agreed, "they do." She could count them off in her head, two years worth of craziness, beginning with the decision to live under the same roof as Harry Potter and expecting her heart to survive intact. "But I'm not in love with Rolf."

Harry looked up. "Oh." Yes, that was warmth in those eyes. Luna caught her breath.

The dinner bell rang, startling them both. Luna stepped back, and Harry gave her a rueful smile. "Perhaps, after dinner, we can start again?" he suggested as he took out his wand.  A few quick spells were all it took to have him presentable for dinner, although the flour did not quite come out of his hair.

Luna bit her lip and nodded. "Of course."