RP: The first dinner guest

[rar_luna]

Date: August 23, 1998
Characters: Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood
Location: the Lovegood Residence
Status: Private
Summary: Hermione visits the Lovegoods for dinner.
Completion: Complete

Comments

[rar_hermione]

The Lovegood home had been rebuilt really well. Hermione couldn't honestly remember too much about it from before; the stress and fear of the situation tended to come to mind more than anything else. After she'd stepped through the Floo earlier, she had been whisked away to the kitchen for dinner and a reintroduction to Luna's father.

There had been a general moment of awkwardness, not only because of this being a new place and a relative stranger, but due to the nature of their last meeting. Fortunately, he had no memories of that, even if she did, and it had soon become more pleasant when they talked about H.E.R.O. and his plans for the Quibbler.

When dinner was finished, Mr. Lovegood went into his office while Luna refused her offer to help clear up. She sipped her coffee and scratched Luna's cat behind the ears while looking around the new kitchen and dining area.

"Dinner was lovely, thank you," she said, smiling at Luna. "I'd love a tour of the house, if you wouldn't mind. It looks really interesting."

[rar_luna]

"I'm glad you liked it," Luna said, setting her cup back down. When Hermione looked like she was done, Luna extracted the cat from Hermione's lap and took her hand, excited to show her what they'd done with the house

[rar_hermione]

"Not a lot, honestly." She stood up and Luna took her hand. She listened and nodded. "If you've got the space, there's no reason not to make it more suitable for what you need."

When Luna mentioned not liking the dark like she used to, she sighed. "That's too bad. I can't sleep anymore if it's totally dark, not yet. I have to hope that it'll improve, though. For both of us," she said, squeezing Luna's hand before she let go. "But the windows are lovely, so I suppose there's at least something good coming from such a bad thing."

They left the kitchen and entered the sitting room that she'd seen in a rush after first arriving. "Under the sofa?" She'd never really heard about storing supplies beneath the sofa, but she figured if anyone would try something new, it was Luna. "It's a comfortable room for spending the evening. I think we need a comfortable sofa like that in our sitting room."

[rar_luna]

"Oh, I'm sure it'll get better," Luna nodded wisely. "I like to think these things just take time. Like when my mum died, and I hated tending the garden without her. Now, I do it to honor her." She smiled brightly, looking out the window to said garden, which was a bit overgrown by certain standards, but Luna thought it looked just right.

"Yes, when we expanded the space below there, it just made more sense than adding another piece of storage furniture." Luna turned her attention to Hermione. "Oh, you absolutely should. It's so nice to watch the dusk and sit somewhere comfortable, and when it gets colder the fire will be lovely."

She nodded out the door and toward the staircase. They stood on the bottom step and Luna pointed to the one closed off space on the ground floor. "That's Daddy's personal office, where he does his non-Quibbler work." They walked up the stairs, where they stopped briefly on Xeno's floor. "And this is his floor, that's the Quibbler office space and his bedroom. He used to be on the second floor, but his

[rar_hermione]

"I don't think I'd want to see some of them on people," Hermione admitted, making a face. "Maybe I'm just a prude, but I can't imagine wearing little scraps of fabric and nothing else

[rar_luna]

Luna could agree with that. She wasn't very interested in seeing other people nearly naked. One may as well just be completely naked, which would probably be inappropriate.

Her question seemed to perplex Hermione, which made Luna smile a bit and watch her closely. She listened intently to the answer she did come up with, her smile growing.

"That sounds nice," she finally said. "Is this girl talk? I don't know about that, either. I know much more about Crumple-Horned Snorkacks, I can talk to you about them for hours. But I was curious, as I realized I'd never thought about what is and isn't attractive to me. People are just people."

She pursed her lips, thinking. Hermione didn't ask, but it was only fair, so she decided, "I think everyone I know has something extremely attractive about them. I just don't know what I prefer."

[rar_hermione]

"I think it is," Hermione said thoughtfully. "We're discussing attractive things and just finished a conversation about clothes. If you bring up crushes and start giggling, however, I'm afraid that I'd have to threaten to hex you." She smiled to show she was teasing even as she shifted on the bed. This sort of conversation wasn't exactly comfortable for her.

She listened to Luna and nodded. "That's how I am, I think. I don't know if there's any one thing that is overall attractive to me. I've noticed attractive things about many people in my life, even those that I, personally, wouldn't feel that way about

[rar_luna]

"Oh, well, perhaps we should start talking about books," Luna said, quite seriously. "What are your favorite muggle books? I'm hoping for some to add to the library this time around."

She listened to Hermione, nodding occasionally. "That makes sense, I think. Thank you for sharing that." Hermione seemed to be a bit uncomfortable with the topic. Luna wasn't, but tried to control her curiosity.

She'd have to think about what she liked about her friends and see if there was a trend. Hermione was right, it'd help her learn something new about herself.