Happy Radish Love, noeon!
Author: tjwritter
Recipient: noeon
Title: Eyesight to the Blind
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: gen, drug use.
Summary: Once a year Harry and Luna drop reality and have an adventure. This time it was the Summer of Love. Far Out!
Word Count: 4,718
Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters herein are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No copyright infringement is intended.
Author's Notes: noeon, never before have I wanted to receive a recipient so badly! I may or may not have only signed up for this fest with the desire to get your special requests! Title comes from The Who. The lyrics are also include in this story, but it's not a Songfic (whatever that even means).
Eyesight to the Blind
"You have got to be joking," Harry said as he surveyed their new surroundings. He was standing next to Luna by the side of a unfamiliar road. All the cars were on the wrong side of the road, including the vehicle in front of them, a vintage, red VW van. Only, not vintage, Harry realized, as he looked around and saw that all the cars zooming past were also old.
Harry blinked in disbelief before turning back to Luna, who crossed her arms and attempted a glare. It never worked for her like it did for Hermione and she soon gave it up. "Do you realize you say that each and every time it is my turn to pick our adventure?"
Harry made to protest, but stopped. She was probably right.
"And have you ever not had a good time?"
This he didn't even attempt to deny. His time with Luna Lovegood was always an adventure, a reprieve from the humdrum of his everyday life.
He remembered back to how it had all started.
It had been a year after the war when he started hearing the voices. The eleven months before hadn't been easy, but he had still persevered and carried on because he had the knowledge and the peace that no matter what else, Voldemort was gone, and he could never return--never.
Then the voices had come.
Sometimes it was the cold cackle he had heard in his adolescent nightmares and visions. Sometimes it was the screeching whine of the monster he and Dumbledore had seen in their otherworldly conversation. Sometimes it was even the voice of the Sorting Hat who had told him all those years ago what he hadn't understood at the time, that a part of him hungered for power, for domination, for a bloodthirsty rule.
As it had gotten closer to the anniversary of his triumph over Voldemort, the voices had gotten louder and more insistent, so that they were all he could hear, all he could focus on. He had withdrawn from the little society he had left in his life.
Ginny had understood--she had her own voices of Tom to sort out--but she had felt ill prepared to deal with his growing gloom and his sweat-soaked nightmares. Hermione had run to the library, Ron dragged him to the pub for pints and stadiums for Quidditch. When that hadn't worked, they had done what they had learned in the past to do when he got this way; they had left him alone, given him time.
It had been Luna who had been the one to show him the way out, to release him from the clutches of his spiral. She had simply done what she had done so many times before, just showed up where he was and saw what he couldn't. She had seen the solution before he had fully articulated the problem.
He had been sitting beside Dumbledore's tomb, looking down the hill beyond to the Black Lake, staring across its rippled surface, trying to focus on the squid's tentacles dancing in and out of the water, trying to hear the song of the Merpeople in the depth, anything to clear his head. He had been spending a lot of time at Hogwarts, visiting with Hagrid and the other professors, working on the recovery, visiting Ginny and the rest of the remaining students. Every so often, more and more, he had snuck away to sit beside Dumbledore, as if the man had any more words of wisdom.
Instead it was Luna who had silently approached and sat down beside him, tucking her bare feet under her skirt.
Luna always amazed him, never more than in those months after the war when more and more she was just there, listening. And the more she had listened, the more he had told her, so that in the end, Luna became, without his really planning it, one of the most important people to him. He had sat there and told her about the voices and how he quite literally felt he was losing his mind. If it had been anyone else, she would have patted him on the back with a "there, there." But it was Luna, so instead she had said, "Of course."
When Harry looked at her, shocked, she had taken his hand and led him to the castle. Outside of the Headmistress' office, beside the trophy cases, was another case, magically protected and imperturbable. In it was the bits and pieces of the Horcruxes that had been collected.
Harry had shivered as he always did when he was face-to-face with them.
"Notice anything missing?" Luna had asked.
Harry studied the case. It all looked present, every last fragment. He had looked at Luna, puzzled. She turned him around so that they faced each other. Placing a hand on his chest, she had said, "You. You are the Horcrux not in that case. But did you really expect to come out of it unscathed?"
He had looked at the destroyed empty shells of Voldemort's fractured soul again: the charred, pierced diary; the blackened, cracked ring; the pulverized, silenced locket; the shards of Hufflepuff's cup; the melted, tarnished bits of diadem; and the fangs of Nagini.
"It could be worse," Luna had whispered.
Harry had laughed. He felt better than he had in a long time. It really could be worse.
"Do you trust me?" Luna had asked after Harry stopped laughing.
"With my life," Harry had answered, needing no time for contemplation.
"Good. Meet me in the empty classroom outside the Great Hall in one hour. In that hour, think really hard about if you could go anywhere, in any time, where and when would you go? Promise?"
"Sure." Harry had answered, curious.
~oOOo~
An hour later, Harry was still curious, if not a bit uneasy when Luna had showed up wearing a strange Muggle outfit of baby blue corduroy jeans and a flimsy white, almost see-through shirt with flowers around the collar. She had smiled and pulled a large needle from her large denim bag.
"Um..." Harry had said after swallowing his heart, which felt like it had jumped into his throat. He'd instantly started to rethink the issue of trust.
"Relax. I'm sure you're familiar with these. I'm told that Muggles use them to stave off disease."
Harry had nodded. He remembered. He also remembered how much it hurt and how it had always made him sick.
"I think I'm allergic." He then told her about the hives and nausea that had come with the needles.
She'd just smiled. "Harry, it wasn't the needle you were allergic to, it was the medicine. The magic that was yours when you were born was fighting against the intrusion of the Muggle medicine. The side effects were probably even stronger for you, as you also had Voldemort's magic too."
Looking at the long, sharp piece of metal, Harry had rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "I don't know. I think it might have been the needle."
Luna just smiled sadly and said, "Do you trust me or not?"
Swallowing, Harry had nodded.
Wasting no time, Luna grabbed Harry's wrist, pulled his sleeve up, wrapped a thin strip of rubber around his tricep and, holding the needle delicately with one hand, thumped his forearm looking for a vein with the other. Harry had watched his arm turn white with little red and blue branch-like veins popping up, but before he could have said or done anything, she'd found the one she wanted and sent the needle into his skin and plunged the murky liquid into it. For a moment he'd felt nothing, then he slowly felt the strength leave his legs and he grabbed onto Luna for support.
"What was that?" he had asked, feeling like his mouth was full of marbles.
"Versmackler Venom."
"What? What is that? What is it going to do?"
Luna had put the needle and paraphernalia back into her bag. "It's going to allow us to travel through place and time. Hopefully."
Harry's head was spinning. He had let go of Luna and leaned against the wall. "What do you mean place and time? More importantly, what do you mean, hopefully?"
For the first time, Luna had looked sheepish. "Well, it hasn't actually been proven...yet."
Harry had felt as if his head was being squeezed in a vise and he'd began to slide down the wall. Luna had reached for him and pulled him up. "Daddy and I have been working on this for a very long time though. I know it will work. We'll have a grand adventure. I promise it."
Holding his head and closing his eyes tight, he'd tried to make out what Luna was saying. Something about where he wanted to go. Where did he want to go? Harry couldn't remember. He had thought about it, about where he'd most like to go, what he'd want to see, who he'd want to see. But he couldn't remember with his head feeling as if it were shrinking.
He had heard Luna call his name but it had seemed so far away and he couldn't think of a response. He couldn't think of anything.
Suddenly, the pressure had been released from his head and he'd tentatively opened his eyes. He had blinked against the bright, clear, focused scene. It had been a revelation of crystallized color, like he was seeing everything through a looking glass, magnifying all the surfaces, sharpening all the corners. He'd marveled at the light and magic that hovered outside of the mind's eye in iridescent fractals that seemed to expand and constrict all around him. He'd looked at his own hands and been awestruck at the complex threads and fibers of magic that swirled and danced right above the surface of his skin.
"What are you seeing?" Luna had asked.
"Magic," Harry had answered. "Pure magic."
He looked at her and gasped. "Merlin, Luna. Look at you. You're...you're radiant." It had slipped out, but it was true. She simply glowed with untapped, untarnished magical purity. It had almost hurt to look at her.
"Why aren't you taking the venom?" Harry had asked.
"This is your adventure. We're going where you want to go. I'll bring us home."
Harry hadn't understood all of that, but he had decided that he wasn't going to question anything...well, hardly anything.
"How does this work? What do you mean about time and place?"
"Alright," Luna had said, putting her bag over her shoulder and taking his hand. He had gotten shivers with the touch. "Close your eyes. Think really hard where and when in this world you'd like most to be. I'd suggest it be somewhere where we aren't already. No point worrying about running into ourselves, or confusing our friends."
"Okay. A bit like a Time Turner then."
"Yes, a bit."
He'd closed his eyes and concentrated on holding Luna's hand and going wherever he wanted. He thought of a small cottage in a small Wizard village where a newly married couple hunched together against the evils of the world. He thought of their friends, the only ones who knew where to find them, and he thought about seeing, for the first time that he could remember, the real lives of those he missed the most.
He'd opened his eyes when he felt a strong breeze rustle his hair. The first thing he saw was Luna digging through her bag pulling out clothes for him. Looking around at the fashions of the people around him, and then at Luna's choices, he smiled. "How'd you know this is where I'd pick?"
Luna had laughed. "Because I've met you."
~oOOo~
That had been their first adventure. In the years that had followed they took turns choosing what adventure they would go on. The first one, Harry got to get glimpses of his parents. The next year, Luna took them to where her mother and father had met. After that, they began taking these adventures to places that weren't so personal but were more entertaining. Each time they'd learned a little bit more about the boundaries of the adventure. That first year they'd learned that while on their adventures, they had no magic. At first, Harry had been apprehensive about this fact. Being hunted his whole life made him feel this was a very bad idea. But it hadn't taken too long for him to feel a bit liberated having no magic, no history and no expectations.
They had also learned that there was a limit to how far back they could go and a few limits to where. Seeing Merlin in action in Arthurian England was a bad idea. Trying to hang out in Atlantis, equally reckless. But they'd learned, and when they did, they always had a good time. It got so that the time Harry used to hate the most, the anniversary of Voldemort's death and the resurgence of the voices in his head, had become something he actually waited all year for. When it was his year to choose where they went, he found himself planning months in advance. He'd comb through history books and travel guides. When it was Luna's turn, he would prepare himself for almost anything.
Even standing on the side of some dusty American road beside a VW van.
"Okay, so when and where exactly are we?"
Luna looked around, then pulled a book out of her bag and began talking to herself. "This can't be right. Unless...did I get the wrong time...?"
"Okay, so where exactly are we supposed to be?"
She handed him the map. "Bethel New York, summer of 1969. But this can't be it."
"Why?" Harry asked, not familiar with place or time.
"Well, because there is supposed to be half a million people on a farm in Bethel for the concert of the century. There's the farm, and I'm assuming we're in Bethel...or at least close to it, but there are no people."
Harry looked around. They were in fact surrounded by farms, but other than that, he couldn't say. "Look, here comes a car. We'll flag them and ask which way."
Luna nodded and then looked at Harry. "I'll flag them down, you go into the van and change your clothes. Here."
Harry looked down at himself and his wizard robes. "Right."
He took her bag and went to the van. "Merlin, Luna, you really did your homework here." The van was covered in Egyptian fabrics of vibrant blues and purples, tie-dyed and psychedelic. Beads hung from the ceiling and pillows littered the van's bed, making it cozy. Harry heard the car slow down, heard something shouted, and then the car peeled out.
"What happened?" he asked, pulling on a pair of bell-bottom jeans.
"They called me a dirty hippy and drove off. How rude."
Putting on the leather vest and joining Luna, Harry laughed. "Well you do look pretty fierce with those flowers in your hair."
She smiled and held her hand up with the middle and pointer finger making a "V." "Peace, man."
Shaking his head, Harry began studying the map again. It took him only a minute to sort out what probably happened.
"Luna, when you thought about when and where you wanted to go, what did you think specifically?"
"Well, I was going to think Woodstock, summer of 1969, because that's what the concert is called. But then I did some research and discovered that the actual concert happened on a farm in Bethel, so that is what I thought. Farm in Bethel, summer of 1969."
Harry smiled; he was right. "Yeah, turns out there is more than one Bethel. We seem to be in Bethel, Pennsylvania. I hope. It's not far, if we are."
Luna looked around and then shrugged, resigned. "Okay, so I guess we should drive to the closest town and hopefully find someone who will do more than call us names."
"Okay," Harry said.
They both walked to the passenger’s side and then laughed.
"I guess one of us is going to have to learn to drive on the right side of the road," Luna said.
"You mean the wrong side," Harry corrected, walking around the van.
"Right."
It was easier than Harry would have ever thought. It seemed as if he was driving in a dream. Like there would be no obstacles, no traffic jams, and he'd never run out of gas.
Twenty minutes later, with smoke billowing from the rear of the van, they pulled over.
"Well, that was fun," Luna said.
Harry looked at her incredulously, but with the flowers in her hair and her ridiculous outfit, he couldn't take anything seriously. They both laughed.
"Now what?" Harry finally asked.
"I guess we'll hitch."
"Hitch?"
"Oh, it was all the rage in this time. You simply stand on the side of the road, stick out your thumb, and someone will pick you up."
"Like the Knight Bus?" Harry asked.
"Something like that."
After an hour on the side of the road with not one car passing by, Harry said, "There's only one problem with this hitching idea."
"Yeah. I know."
After another hour when the only two cars they saw passed them by with upturned noses and shouted slurs, Luna said, "I guess there were two problems with hitching."
"Maybe we should start walking, see if we can find a road with more traffic?"
Luna looked back at the van with its stockade of supplies and sighed. "I guess."
Harry walked to the van to grab their bags. Times like this were when he missed magic the most. He missed Hermione's purse and tents that could fit into your pocket. Strike that, he hated tents, all of them, magical or not. "Luna, what is this?"
He was holding poles and a tarp.
"Um... Well... I know what you said. I remember the rule... but... honestly, Harry. Half the fun in the world is going to be found in places where they don't have four star hotels and all the comforts of home. You're just going to have to get over your camping phobia from time to time. It's not going to be forever, it's going to be for three or four days. Promise."
Easy for you to say, he thought. You weren't stuck in one for nine months! "Do I have a choice?"
"Of course. You always have a choice. Remember, you are the one that controls when we leave."
He heaved the heaviest pack onto his back with a groan. "Okay. Let's start this adventure."
She came and took the other pack and they set out down the road, heading east. As they walked, Luna taught Harry some of the lingo he'd need to fit in as a hippy. He thought it was all ridiculous, but reasoned that 10 years from now, his kids would tease and ridicule his vocabulary as well. Besides, it was part of the fun, the becoming someone else, somewhere else.
Every time a car would come by they would put out their thumb. It got so that they could tell by the model of the car if they would get yelled at or not. The age of the driver had a lot to do with it too.
"Oh, to be young and have the whole world in front of us," Luna shouted, throwing her hands out and twirling around.
Harry laughed.
Dusk was just about to settle around them when a van, very much like theirs, pulled over. They hadn't even put out their thumbs yet. A woman with long red hair and freckles rolled down her window.
"Hey, man, sister. You going?"
Harry looked at Luna questioningly, Luna just put on one of her slow, lazy smiles. "Far out. Can we hitch?"
"Jump inside the magical ride," the girl said.
Harry felt ridiculous but he put his pointer and middle finger up in a V and bobbed his head. "Dig it."
They got in and were introduced to Max the driver and Sunshine the redhead. There were also two other girls and a border collie in the back that Harry and Luna maneuvered around as Max peeled out, sending everyone reeling.
"Wow," one of the girls said, bumping close to Harry and taking his face in her hands. "Your eyes. They're so green. Like I'm looking into the middle of a rainbow."
Harry blushed and pulled away. "Thanks."
"I'm Stacy, and this is my friend Stacey," she said, putting her hand on the thigh of the other girl.
"That will be easy. I'm Harry and this is my steady Luna."
Luna laughed and blew him a kiss. He smiled and shrugged. It just seemed easier.
The girls must have noticed Harry's accent.
"Ohhhh, where are you from?" Stacey asked.
"England," Harry and Luna both answered.
"Groovy. You came all this way for the concert?" Stacy asked.
"You have no idea," Harry said and shared a conspiratorial smile with Luna.
"I heard Dylan might show up," Sunshine called from the front seat.
"Really?" Luna said, excited, then frowned, as if remembering something. Harry caught her look and she shook her head, mouthing, "He never showed." Oh well, he didn't know who Dylan was anyway. He was just there for the ride. Literally.
They talked more about music and Harry tried to pay attention, but he hadn't done the research and wasn't up on American music of the '60s. He didn't really pay attention to what was going on until they pulled into a dark, wooded area.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"We're going to camp here for the night, get a early start of it tomorrow."
"Yay! Camping."
Luna was the only one to recognize it as sarcasm.
An hour later and Harry had to admit that this sort of camping was way more entertaining than the time he'd spent with Ron and Hermione. No offense to his best mates, of course. But Ron didn't know how to play guitar and Hermione didn't offer around a plate of brownies that Harry liked so much he went for seconds. Unfortunately though, Luna smacked it out of his hand before he could finish.
"What the hell?"
"Those aren't just brownies," Luna whispered.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked, still savoring the tingle of chocolate on his tongue. He'd never had chocolate quite that delicious. He licked his lips and his teeth and then tried to lick his own tongue. This made him laugh. A lot.
He fell off the log he and Luna were sitting on, taking her with him. When Harry had finally quit laughing they laid on their backs with their arms crossed behind their heads, Harry looking at the sky with a wide grin and Luna looking at him with a wide grin of her own.
"Look at those stars," Harry said in an awed whisper. "How did they get so close?" He reached up and tried to catch them. "When did the sky get so beautiful?"
"You're just really seeing it. Maybe for the first time."
"I think you're right. What were in those brownies?"
Luna laughed. "Magic."
"Really?" Harry asked, looking at Luna, shocked.
"No, just metaphorical magic. Something like a potion you take to make you see with new eyes and feel with new synapses."
"Far out," Harry said, then started giggling.
Luna snorted. "Catching, huh?"
"I could totally dig this scene, ya know?"
"You're high."
"I am, aren't I? What about you, Luna? Are you having a good time?"
"Very much so. It's fun to watch you enjoying yourself."
Harry couldn't get the smile off his face. "Is this what you feel like all the time?"
"What?" Luna asked sharply. "You think I'm high all the time?"
"No! Not like that. Not chemically. But what you were saying about seeing with new eyes and feeling with new synapses? And this sense of calm that is just...just bone deep, you know? Like I feel it all through me. Is that how you feel all the time?"
Luna sighed. "I don't know how to answer that. Look at me with those new eyes of yours and tell me what you see."
Harry rolled over to face her so he could really look at her. His eyes kept trying to cross, but finally he cleared his vision and really saw her. She looked like she always did, a little spacey, but also truly in the moment. But there were other things he hadn't noticed before. A bit of sadness, a bit of grief in the corners of her eyes and the quiver of her lips. Harry swallowed and took her hand. He remembered how she had always shrugged it off when Harry had asked her if she was ever lonely, ever sad. Then he remembered the melancholy he had felt while in her room and peering at that picture she had obviously spent a lot of time on, the one that depicted what she had thought of as "friends."
At the time, he had of course thought of her as a friend, but it wasn't until later that he really appreciated her as one of his very best friends. And still, in all this time, he had never really seen her. He had spent so much time mourning his parents' death that he hadn't even wondered what Luna had gone through when she’d lost her mother. And, he had spent so much time thinking about his own residual consequences of the war that he hadn't even thought of others, even people he'd counted on the most. Luna had been imprisoned for months, and he didn't even think about that. Let alone see that any of it might have affected her or hurt her in ways she didn't talk about.
"What do you see?" Luna asked.
"I see you. The real you."
"Yeah? And what does she look like?"
Putting his hand gently on her cheek, his thumb catching the one tear that he probably wouldn't have even seen before, hovering on her eyelashes. "You're effervescent. Truly. One day you will have someone who deserves you, who can see you without needing any special brownies, who will know you and all you are capable of without having to spend a lifetime of adventures first. I will be so happy for you. But I might hate him just a little bit."
Luna smiled and took his hand off her face and held it. "You are a good friend."
"Nah. I'm an okay friend. But I will be better."
"Okay, but until then. Can we dance?"
Harry laughed, stood up, and, reaching his hand down, helped her to her feet. She kicked off her sandals and he did likewise. Harry had forgotten completely about the others in their little party. They had obviously had seconds, and even thirds of the brownies. The dancing was something Harry had never seen before. Max was in the center and the girls were sort of floating around him, all arms and hips, their feet and legs seemingly hearing another beat all together.
Taking Luna's right hand in his left and putting his right hand on her hip, Harry spun her. They waltzed around, twirling each other indiscriminately to songs whose lyrics made no sense. Until Max stopped and said, "Here's a song for our new British friends. Just for you lovebirds," before beginning a new song:
You talk about your woman,
I wish you could see mine.
You talk about your woman,
I wish you could see mine.
Every time she starts to lovin'
She brings eyesight to the blind.
You know her daddy gave her magic,
I can tell by the way she walks.
Her daddy gave her magic,
I can tell by the way she walks.
Everytime she start to shakin'
The dumb begin to talk.
She's got the power to heal you, never fear.
She's got the power to heal you, never fear.
Harry and Luna listened to the song, holding each other tightly and laughing into each other's shoulder.
Like the adventures before them, he always learned something he hadn't known before. This time he learned that his natural magical essences and tiny squares of paper doused with chemicals did not mix. He learned that Special Brownies really were special. He learned that camping could be fun if you did it right and you weren't running for your life. Mostly though, he learned that as much as these yearly getaways helped him survive the rest of the year and stopped him from wallowing in dark remembrances, they were equally as important to Luna.
Recipient: noeon
Title: Eyesight to the Blind
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: gen, drug use.
Summary: Once a year Harry and Luna drop reality and have an adventure. This time it was the Summer of Love. Far Out!
Word Count: 4,718
Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters herein are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No copyright infringement is intended.
Author's Notes: noeon, never before have I wanted to receive a recipient so badly! I may or may not have only signed up for this fest with the desire to get your special requests! Title comes from The Who. The lyrics are also include in this story, but it's not a Songfic (whatever that even means).
Eyesight to the Blind
"You have got to be joking," Harry said as he surveyed their new surroundings. He was standing next to Luna by the side of a unfamiliar road. All the cars were on the wrong side of the road, including the vehicle in front of them, a vintage, red VW van. Only, not vintage, Harry realized, as he looked around and saw that all the cars zooming past were also old.
Harry blinked in disbelief before turning back to Luna, who crossed her arms and attempted a glare. It never worked for her like it did for Hermione and she soon gave it up. "Do you realize you say that each and every time it is my turn to pick our adventure?"
Harry made to protest, but stopped. She was probably right.
"And have you ever not had a good time?"
This he didn't even attempt to deny. His time with Luna Lovegood was always an adventure, a reprieve from the humdrum of his everyday life.
He remembered back to how it had all started.
It had been a year after the war when he started hearing the voices. The eleven months before hadn't been easy, but he had still persevered and carried on because he had the knowledge and the peace that no matter what else, Voldemort was gone, and he could never return--never.
Then the voices had come.
Sometimes it was the cold cackle he had heard in his adolescent nightmares and visions. Sometimes it was the screeching whine of the monster he and Dumbledore had seen in their otherworldly conversation. Sometimes it was even the voice of the Sorting Hat who had told him all those years ago what he hadn't understood at the time, that a part of him hungered for power, for domination, for a bloodthirsty rule.
As it had gotten closer to the anniversary of his triumph over Voldemort, the voices had gotten louder and more insistent, so that they were all he could hear, all he could focus on. He had withdrawn from the little society he had left in his life.
Ginny had understood--she had her own voices of Tom to sort out--but she had felt ill prepared to deal with his growing gloom and his sweat-soaked nightmares. Hermione had run to the library, Ron dragged him to the pub for pints and stadiums for Quidditch. When that hadn't worked, they had done what they had learned in the past to do when he got this way; they had left him alone, given him time.
It had been Luna who had been the one to show him the way out, to release him from the clutches of his spiral. She had simply done what she had done so many times before, just showed up where he was and saw what he couldn't. She had seen the solution before he had fully articulated the problem.
He had been sitting beside Dumbledore's tomb, looking down the hill beyond to the Black Lake, staring across its rippled surface, trying to focus on the squid's tentacles dancing in and out of the water, trying to hear the song of the Merpeople in the depth, anything to clear his head. He had been spending a lot of time at Hogwarts, visiting with Hagrid and the other professors, working on the recovery, visiting Ginny and the rest of the remaining students. Every so often, more and more, he had snuck away to sit beside Dumbledore, as if the man had any more words of wisdom.
Instead it was Luna who had silently approached and sat down beside him, tucking her bare feet under her skirt.
Luna always amazed him, never more than in those months after the war when more and more she was just there, listening. And the more she had listened, the more he had told her, so that in the end, Luna became, without his really planning it, one of the most important people to him. He had sat there and told her about the voices and how he quite literally felt he was losing his mind. If it had been anyone else, she would have patted him on the back with a "there, there." But it was Luna, so instead she had said, "Of course."
When Harry looked at her, shocked, she had taken his hand and led him to the castle. Outside of the Headmistress' office, beside the trophy cases, was another case, magically protected and imperturbable. In it was the bits and pieces of the Horcruxes that had been collected.
Harry had shivered as he always did when he was face-to-face with them.
"Notice anything missing?" Luna had asked.
Harry studied the case. It all looked present, every last fragment. He had looked at Luna, puzzled. She turned him around so that they faced each other. Placing a hand on his chest, she had said, "You. You are the Horcrux not in that case. But did you really expect to come out of it unscathed?"
He had looked at the destroyed empty shells of Voldemort's fractured soul again: the charred, pierced diary; the blackened, cracked ring; the pulverized, silenced locket; the shards of Hufflepuff's cup; the melted, tarnished bits of diadem; and the fangs of Nagini.
"It could be worse," Luna had whispered.
Harry had laughed. He felt better than he had in a long time. It really could be worse.
"Do you trust me?" Luna had asked after Harry stopped laughing.
"With my life," Harry had answered, needing no time for contemplation.
"Good. Meet me in the empty classroom outside the Great Hall in one hour. In that hour, think really hard about if you could go anywhere, in any time, where and when would you go? Promise?"
"Sure." Harry had answered, curious.
~oOOo~
An hour later, Harry was still curious, if not a bit uneasy when Luna had showed up wearing a strange Muggle outfit of baby blue corduroy jeans and a flimsy white, almost see-through shirt with flowers around the collar. She had smiled and pulled a large needle from her large denim bag.
"Um..." Harry had said after swallowing his heart, which felt like it had jumped into his throat. He'd instantly started to rethink the issue of trust.
"Relax. I'm sure you're familiar with these. I'm told that Muggles use them to stave off disease."
Harry had nodded. He remembered. He also remembered how much it hurt and how it had always made him sick.
"I think I'm allergic." He then told her about the hives and nausea that had come with the needles.
She'd just smiled. "Harry, it wasn't the needle you were allergic to, it was the medicine. The magic that was yours when you were born was fighting against the intrusion of the Muggle medicine. The side effects were probably even stronger for you, as you also had Voldemort's magic too."
Looking at the long, sharp piece of metal, Harry had rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "I don't know. I think it might have been the needle."
Luna just smiled sadly and said, "Do you trust me or not?"
Swallowing, Harry had nodded.
Wasting no time, Luna grabbed Harry's wrist, pulled his sleeve up, wrapped a thin strip of rubber around his tricep and, holding the needle delicately with one hand, thumped his forearm looking for a vein with the other. Harry had watched his arm turn white with little red and blue branch-like veins popping up, but before he could have said or done anything, she'd found the one she wanted and sent the needle into his skin and plunged the murky liquid into it. For a moment he'd felt nothing, then he slowly felt the strength leave his legs and he grabbed onto Luna for support.
"What was that?" he had asked, feeling like his mouth was full of marbles.
"Versmackler Venom."
"What? What is that? What is it going to do?"
Luna had put the needle and paraphernalia back into her bag. "It's going to allow us to travel through place and time. Hopefully."
Harry's head was spinning. He had let go of Luna and leaned against the wall. "What do you mean place and time? More importantly, what do you mean, hopefully?"
For the first time, Luna had looked sheepish. "Well, it hasn't actually been proven...yet."
Harry had felt as if his head was being squeezed in a vise and he'd began to slide down the wall. Luna had reached for him and pulled him up. "Daddy and I have been working on this for a very long time though. I know it will work. We'll have a grand adventure. I promise it."
Holding his head and closing his eyes tight, he'd tried to make out what Luna was saying. Something about where he wanted to go. Where did he want to go? Harry couldn't remember. He had thought about it, about where he'd most like to go, what he'd want to see, who he'd want to see. But he couldn't remember with his head feeling as if it were shrinking.
He had heard Luna call his name but it had seemed so far away and he couldn't think of a response. He couldn't think of anything.
Suddenly, the pressure had been released from his head and he'd tentatively opened his eyes. He had blinked against the bright, clear, focused scene. It had been a revelation of crystallized color, like he was seeing everything through a looking glass, magnifying all the surfaces, sharpening all the corners. He'd marveled at the light and magic that hovered outside of the mind's eye in iridescent fractals that seemed to expand and constrict all around him. He'd looked at his own hands and been awestruck at the complex threads and fibers of magic that swirled and danced right above the surface of his skin.
"What are you seeing?" Luna had asked.
"Magic," Harry had answered. "Pure magic."
He looked at her and gasped. "Merlin, Luna. Look at you. You're...you're radiant." It had slipped out, but it was true. She simply glowed with untapped, untarnished magical purity. It had almost hurt to look at her.
"Why aren't you taking the venom?" Harry had asked.
"This is your adventure. We're going where you want to go. I'll bring us home."
Harry hadn't understood all of that, but he had decided that he wasn't going to question anything...well, hardly anything.
"How does this work? What do you mean about time and place?"
"Alright," Luna had said, putting her bag over her shoulder and taking his hand. He had gotten shivers with the touch. "Close your eyes. Think really hard where and when in this world you'd like most to be. I'd suggest it be somewhere where we aren't already. No point worrying about running into ourselves, or confusing our friends."
"Okay. A bit like a Time Turner then."
"Yes, a bit."
He'd closed his eyes and concentrated on holding Luna's hand and going wherever he wanted. He thought of a small cottage in a small Wizard village where a newly married couple hunched together against the evils of the world. He thought of their friends, the only ones who knew where to find them, and he thought about seeing, for the first time that he could remember, the real lives of those he missed the most.
He'd opened his eyes when he felt a strong breeze rustle his hair. The first thing he saw was Luna digging through her bag pulling out clothes for him. Looking around at the fashions of the people around him, and then at Luna's choices, he smiled. "How'd you know this is where I'd pick?"
Luna had laughed. "Because I've met you."
~oOOo~
That had been their first adventure. In the years that had followed they took turns choosing what adventure they would go on. The first one, Harry got to get glimpses of his parents. The next year, Luna took them to where her mother and father had met. After that, they began taking these adventures to places that weren't so personal but were more entertaining. Each time they'd learned a little bit more about the boundaries of the adventure. That first year they'd learned that while on their adventures, they had no magic. At first, Harry had been apprehensive about this fact. Being hunted his whole life made him feel this was a very bad idea. But it hadn't taken too long for him to feel a bit liberated having no magic, no history and no expectations.
They had also learned that there was a limit to how far back they could go and a few limits to where. Seeing Merlin in action in Arthurian England was a bad idea. Trying to hang out in Atlantis, equally reckless. But they'd learned, and when they did, they always had a good time. It got so that the time Harry used to hate the most, the anniversary of Voldemort's death and the resurgence of the voices in his head, had become something he actually waited all year for. When it was his year to choose where they went, he found himself planning months in advance. He'd comb through history books and travel guides. When it was Luna's turn, he would prepare himself for almost anything.
Even standing on the side of some dusty American road beside a VW van.
"Okay, so when and where exactly are we?"
Luna looked around, then pulled a book out of her bag and began talking to herself. "This can't be right. Unless...did I get the wrong time...?"
"Okay, so where exactly are we supposed to be?"
She handed him the map. "Bethel New York, summer of 1969. But this can't be it."
"Why?" Harry asked, not familiar with place or time.
"Well, because there is supposed to be half a million people on a farm in Bethel for the concert of the century. There's the farm, and I'm assuming we're in Bethel...or at least close to it, but there are no people."
Harry looked around. They were in fact surrounded by farms, but other than that, he couldn't say. "Look, here comes a car. We'll flag them and ask which way."
Luna nodded and then looked at Harry. "I'll flag them down, you go into the van and change your clothes. Here."
Harry looked down at himself and his wizard robes. "Right."
He took her bag and went to the van. "Merlin, Luna, you really did your homework here." The van was covered in Egyptian fabrics of vibrant blues and purples, tie-dyed and psychedelic. Beads hung from the ceiling and pillows littered the van's bed, making it cozy. Harry heard the car slow down, heard something shouted, and then the car peeled out.
"What happened?" he asked, pulling on a pair of bell-bottom jeans.
"They called me a dirty hippy and drove off. How rude."
Putting on the leather vest and joining Luna, Harry laughed. "Well you do look pretty fierce with those flowers in your hair."
She smiled and held her hand up with the middle and pointer finger making a "V." "Peace, man."
Shaking his head, Harry began studying the map again. It took him only a minute to sort out what probably happened.
"Luna, when you thought about when and where you wanted to go, what did you think specifically?"
"Well, I was going to think Woodstock, summer of 1969, because that's what the concert is called. But then I did some research and discovered that the actual concert happened on a farm in Bethel, so that is what I thought. Farm in Bethel, summer of 1969."
Harry smiled; he was right. "Yeah, turns out there is more than one Bethel. We seem to be in Bethel, Pennsylvania. I hope. It's not far, if we are."
Luna looked around and then shrugged, resigned. "Okay, so I guess we should drive to the closest town and hopefully find someone who will do more than call us names."
"Okay," Harry said.
They both walked to the passenger’s side and then laughed.
"I guess one of us is going to have to learn to drive on the right side of the road," Luna said.
"You mean the wrong side," Harry corrected, walking around the van.
"Right."
It was easier than Harry would have ever thought. It seemed as if he was driving in a dream. Like there would be no obstacles, no traffic jams, and he'd never run out of gas.
Twenty minutes later, with smoke billowing from the rear of the van, they pulled over.
"Well, that was fun," Luna said.
Harry looked at her incredulously, but with the flowers in her hair and her ridiculous outfit, he couldn't take anything seriously. They both laughed.
"Now what?" Harry finally asked.
"I guess we'll hitch."
"Hitch?"
"Oh, it was all the rage in this time. You simply stand on the side of the road, stick out your thumb, and someone will pick you up."
"Like the Knight Bus?" Harry asked.
"Something like that."
After an hour on the side of the road with not one car passing by, Harry said, "There's only one problem with this hitching idea."
"Yeah. I know."
After another hour when the only two cars they saw passed them by with upturned noses and shouted slurs, Luna said, "I guess there were two problems with hitching."
"Maybe we should start walking, see if we can find a road with more traffic?"
Luna looked back at the van with its stockade of supplies and sighed. "I guess."
Harry walked to the van to grab their bags. Times like this were when he missed magic the most. He missed Hermione's purse and tents that could fit into your pocket. Strike that, he hated tents, all of them, magical or not. "Luna, what is this?"
He was holding poles and a tarp.
"Um... Well... I know what you said. I remember the rule... but... honestly, Harry. Half the fun in the world is going to be found in places where they don't have four star hotels and all the comforts of home. You're just going to have to get over your camping phobia from time to time. It's not going to be forever, it's going to be for three or four days. Promise."
Easy for you to say, he thought. You weren't stuck in one for nine months! "Do I have a choice?"
"Of course. You always have a choice. Remember, you are the one that controls when we leave."
He heaved the heaviest pack onto his back with a groan. "Okay. Let's start this adventure."
She came and took the other pack and they set out down the road, heading east. As they walked, Luna taught Harry some of the lingo he'd need to fit in as a hippy. He thought it was all ridiculous, but reasoned that 10 years from now, his kids would tease and ridicule his vocabulary as well. Besides, it was part of the fun, the becoming someone else, somewhere else.
Every time a car would come by they would put out their thumb. It got so that they could tell by the model of the car if they would get yelled at or not. The age of the driver had a lot to do with it too.
"Oh, to be young and have the whole world in front of us," Luna shouted, throwing her hands out and twirling around.
Harry laughed.
Dusk was just about to settle around them when a van, very much like theirs, pulled over. They hadn't even put out their thumbs yet. A woman with long red hair and freckles rolled down her window.
"Hey, man, sister. You going?"
Harry looked at Luna questioningly, Luna just put on one of her slow, lazy smiles. "Far out. Can we hitch?"
"Jump inside the magical ride," the girl said.
Harry felt ridiculous but he put his pointer and middle finger up in a V and bobbed his head. "Dig it."
They got in and were introduced to Max the driver and Sunshine the redhead. There were also two other girls and a border collie in the back that Harry and Luna maneuvered around as Max peeled out, sending everyone reeling.
"Wow," one of the girls said, bumping close to Harry and taking his face in her hands. "Your eyes. They're so green. Like I'm looking into the middle of a rainbow."
Harry blushed and pulled away. "Thanks."
"I'm Stacy, and this is my friend Stacey," she said, putting her hand on the thigh of the other girl.
"That will be easy. I'm Harry and this is my steady Luna."
Luna laughed and blew him a kiss. He smiled and shrugged. It just seemed easier.
The girls must have noticed Harry's accent.
"Ohhhh, where are you from?" Stacey asked.
"England," Harry and Luna both answered.
"Groovy. You came all this way for the concert?" Stacy asked.
"You have no idea," Harry said and shared a conspiratorial smile with Luna.
"I heard Dylan might show up," Sunshine called from the front seat.
"Really?" Luna said, excited, then frowned, as if remembering something. Harry caught her look and she shook her head, mouthing, "He never showed." Oh well, he didn't know who Dylan was anyway. He was just there for the ride. Literally.
They talked more about music and Harry tried to pay attention, but he hadn't done the research and wasn't up on American music of the '60s. He didn't really pay attention to what was going on until they pulled into a dark, wooded area.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"We're going to camp here for the night, get a early start of it tomorrow."
"Yay! Camping."
Luna was the only one to recognize it as sarcasm.
An hour later and Harry had to admit that this sort of camping was way more entertaining than the time he'd spent with Ron and Hermione. No offense to his best mates, of course. But Ron didn't know how to play guitar and Hermione didn't offer around a plate of brownies that Harry liked so much he went for seconds. Unfortunately though, Luna smacked it out of his hand before he could finish.
"What the hell?"
"Those aren't just brownies," Luna whispered.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked, still savoring the tingle of chocolate on his tongue. He'd never had chocolate quite that delicious. He licked his lips and his teeth and then tried to lick his own tongue. This made him laugh. A lot.
He fell off the log he and Luna were sitting on, taking her with him. When Harry had finally quit laughing they laid on their backs with their arms crossed behind their heads, Harry looking at the sky with a wide grin and Luna looking at him with a wide grin of her own.
"Look at those stars," Harry said in an awed whisper. "How did they get so close?" He reached up and tried to catch them. "When did the sky get so beautiful?"
"You're just really seeing it. Maybe for the first time."
"I think you're right. What were in those brownies?"
Luna laughed. "Magic."
"Really?" Harry asked, looking at Luna, shocked.
"No, just metaphorical magic. Something like a potion you take to make you see with new eyes and feel with new synapses."
"Far out," Harry said, then started giggling.
Luna snorted. "Catching, huh?"
"I could totally dig this scene, ya know?"
"You're high."
"I am, aren't I? What about you, Luna? Are you having a good time?"
"Very much so. It's fun to watch you enjoying yourself."
Harry couldn't get the smile off his face. "Is this what you feel like all the time?"
"What?" Luna asked sharply. "You think I'm high all the time?"
"No! Not like that. Not chemically. But what you were saying about seeing with new eyes and feeling with new synapses? And this sense of calm that is just...just bone deep, you know? Like I feel it all through me. Is that how you feel all the time?"
Luna sighed. "I don't know how to answer that. Look at me with those new eyes of yours and tell me what you see."
Harry rolled over to face her so he could really look at her. His eyes kept trying to cross, but finally he cleared his vision and really saw her. She looked like she always did, a little spacey, but also truly in the moment. But there were other things he hadn't noticed before. A bit of sadness, a bit of grief in the corners of her eyes and the quiver of her lips. Harry swallowed and took her hand. He remembered how she had always shrugged it off when Harry had asked her if she was ever lonely, ever sad. Then he remembered the melancholy he had felt while in her room and peering at that picture she had obviously spent a lot of time on, the one that depicted what she had thought of as "friends."
At the time, he had of course thought of her as a friend, but it wasn't until later that he really appreciated her as one of his very best friends. And still, in all this time, he had never really seen her. He had spent so much time mourning his parents' death that he hadn't even wondered what Luna had gone through when she’d lost her mother. And, he had spent so much time thinking about his own residual consequences of the war that he hadn't even thought of others, even people he'd counted on the most. Luna had been imprisoned for months, and he didn't even think about that. Let alone see that any of it might have affected her or hurt her in ways she didn't talk about.
"What do you see?" Luna asked.
"I see you. The real you."
"Yeah? And what does she look like?"
Putting his hand gently on her cheek, his thumb catching the one tear that he probably wouldn't have even seen before, hovering on her eyelashes. "You're effervescent. Truly. One day you will have someone who deserves you, who can see you without needing any special brownies, who will know you and all you are capable of without having to spend a lifetime of adventures first. I will be so happy for you. But I might hate him just a little bit."
Luna smiled and took his hand off her face and held it. "You are a good friend."
"Nah. I'm an okay friend. But I will be better."
"Okay, but until then. Can we dance?"
Harry laughed, stood up, and, reaching his hand down, helped her to her feet. She kicked off her sandals and he did likewise. Harry had forgotten completely about the others in their little party. They had obviously had seconds, and even thirds of the brownies. The dancing was something Harry had never seen before. Max was in the center and the girls were sort of floating around him, all arms and hips, their feet and legs seemingly hearing another beat all together.
Taking Luna's right hand in his left and putting his right hand on her hip, Harry spun her. They waltzed around, twirling each other indiscriminately to songs whose lyrics made no sense. Until Max stopped and said, "Here's a song for our new British friends. Just for you lovebirds," before beginning a new song:
You talk about your woman,
I wish you could see mine.
You talk about your woman,
I wish you could see mine.
Every time she starts to lovin'
She brings eyesight to the blind.
You know her daddy gave her magic,
I can tell by the way she walks.
Her daddy gave her magic,
I can tell by the way she walks.
Everytime she start to shakin'
The dumb begin to talk.
She's got the power to heal you, never fear.
She's got the power to heal you, never fear.
Harry and Luna listened to the song, holding each other tightly and laughing into each other's shoulder.
Like the adventures before them, he always learned something he hadn't known before. This time he learned that his natural magical essences and tiny squares of paper doused with chemicals did not mix. He learned that Special Brownies really were special. He learned that camping could be fun if you did it right and you weren't running for your life. Mostly though, he learned that as much as these yearly getaways helped him survive the rest of the year and stopped him from wallowing in dark remembrances, they were equally as important to Luna.