Luna Meets the Dursleys

II.

As Harry escorted Luna to the stairs, he felt the eyes of Aunt Petunia and Dudley bearing into his back, scrutinizing every move he made. He'd seen the critical look on Aunt Petunia's face when he'd taken Luna's hand, but had chosen to ignore it. Luna, on the other hand, was perfectly at ease. She mounted the stairs next to him, her fingers comfortably intertwined with his. She was humming a whimsical tune under her breath, and she gave Harry a warm smile when their eyes met.

"This is very nice, Harry," she said. "The house even smells like Christmas, doesn't it?"

Harry nodded, saying nothing. In the air there was a hint of pine from the Christmas tree and the distinctly cinnamon smell of something baking in the kitchen. Yet Harry didn't think it felt much like Christmas. As far as he was concerned the Dursleys could live smack in the middle of the North Pole next door to Saint Nick and it wouldn't feel like Christmas there either.

He led Luna to the door of his room and opened it. But before he could step in, Luna took his arm. "Wait," she said. She slipped one hand into the pocket of her skirt and withdrew a sprig of mistletoe, tied with a red ribbon. Then she held it up over her head as high as she could. "Oh look, mistletoe. That means you'll have to kiss me now."

Despite himself Harry smiled as he looked into Luna's eyes. "Yes, I guess I will," he said, and bent forward. Their lips touched lightly, and he cupped his hand against her cheek. It felt good to be close to her. She made him feel more comfortable in his own skin. He could forget he was Harry Potter, he could forget all about everything that troubled him.

"Thank you," he murmured, surprising himself. He straightened at the sound of his own voice.

If Luna noticed, she didn't say anything, but there was a mysterious expression on her face as she moved past Harry into the bedroom. As Harry followed, he noticed the room seemed even smaller than before. This was quickly verified by the presence of an inflatable mattress on the floor next to the bed. It was unmade; with a pillow, and some sheets and a blanket stacked at the foot of it.

An inflatable mattress? Harry was almost insulted by this, until he thought about Uncle Vernon turning red in the face while huffing and puffing to get the thing filled up. As far as Harry knew the Dursleys didn't own an air pump, at least he'd never seen them use one. Even if they did own a pump, Harry still preferred the image of Uncle Vernon using every last bit of air blowing up a mattress for Luna to sleep on.

Nonetheless, he couldn't let Luna sleep on that mattress. "Luna, you can use the bed. I'll take the floor," he said.

"Don't be silly, Harry," Luna said, and she squeezed his hand.

"No, really, I want you to."

"It's sweet of you. But it'll be fun to sleep on the floor. It will remind me of all those trips I've taken with Daddy. We sleep under the stars very frequently, you know. It's quite breathtaking. You'll have to come along sometime."

Then Luna let go of his hand and looked around the room as if she were gazing upon a museum filled with art treasures. "Did you draw this?" she asked, pointing at a rather crude childlike drawing of an owl taped to the door of the closet.

"Yeah," Harry replied.

"It's really very good. When did you draw it?"

"I dunno, I think when I was eleven."

But Luna's attention had drifted to the desk by the window, upon which sat the photo album that Harry had received from Hagrid after his first year at Hogwarts. From the thin layer of dust coating the top, it had not been moved or touched since he'd left for Hogwarts three months ago. As meticulous as Aunt Petunia was about neatness, she conveniently overlooked Harry's room.

"You must get very good light with the desk positioned there," Luna remarked. She stepped over the inflatable mattress and crossed the room. She ran her fingers gingerly along the edge of the desk as if it were an antique.

"Yeah, well, that's where I write all my letters in the summer."

"I know we haven't needed to write since we only just started seeing each other at Hogwarts. But over the summer, you'll be writing my letters here?"

"Sure, of course." Harry smiled at her earnest expression.

Luna smiled. "Good. Now over the summer I can think of you at this desk, writing letters and looking up at the sky. We both can look at the sky. So it'll be like we're together, even when we're not."

Something shifted in Harry's chest as he looked at her. He wanted to kiss her again; the urge was almost overwhelming. But at the last second he veered gently to the right and reached over onto the desk to pick up the photo album. He dusted it with the hem of his sweatshirt. "You want to see some pictures?"

Luna sat next to him on the edge of the bed. Their knees and elbows touched.

Harry opened the book to the first page, to a photograph of his mother and father holding him. His mother picked up his hand and kissed his fingers, while his father smiled and touched the top of Harry's head.

"Your mum is very pretty, Harry," Luna said quietly, almost reverentially.

"Yeah, thanks."

"Your dad is very handsome as well."

Harry opened his mouth to respond but noticed that Luna was looking directly at him as she said that, with sadness in her eyes. This caught Harry very much off guard. His entire body tensed. He wondered if he'd inadvertently said something, or done something to upset her. "Luna, are you okay?"

She took his hand. "Of course, I'm fine. Let's go for a walk, I'd really like to see more of your neighborhood."

"Sure, okay."

***

"The same room? Vernon, have you gone mad?"

Aunt Petunia's voice rose threateningly from the living room as Harry and Luna reached the top of the stairs. Luna was about to step down, but Harry gently held her arm.

"Well, Petunia darling, you never know, Marge might still be able to make it this year. I wasn't about to make my sister sleep on that bloody mattress," Uncle Vernon protested.

"Honestly, Vernon! We'd already decided that girl would use the extra room. If Marge does come, we'll just move Harry into the cupboard under the stairs, and we'll put that girl in his room. What would the neighbors think if they found out that those two were sharing a room?"

"But I'm using the extra room for my video games!" Dudley protested. "Since Harry took my extra bedroom, you promised that when Aunt Marge wasn't here I could do that. Besides I don't want that funny girl in there. There's something wrong with her eyes. She looks like a fish."

"No," Aunt Petunia said firmly, conveniently overlooking Dudley's remark. "That girl is moving into the extra room and that's that. Harry can move her things. I won't have rumors getting started."

"No, not unless you start them first," Harry muttered hotly. He was getting tired of hearing Luna being referred to as that girl.

"What if she touches my stuff?" Dudley sounded stricken.

"Don't worry, Dudders, we'll get you all new games to make up for it," Uncle Vernon assured him.

"Oh, all right." Dudley emitted a long, melancholy sigh, as if he was making some great moral sacrifice.

Harry was livid, nearly shaking with rage. He was just about to go in there and give the Dursleys a piece of his mind, when he noticed that Luna had started walking down the stairs. Horrified, he called to her in a loud whisper. "Luna!"

But Luna quietly moved through the doorway into the living room. The Dursleys instantly stopped talking. The house went quiet as a tomb.

"Don't worry, I won't play with your games. I'd really much rather read, anyway. Also, I can move my own things, but if you don't mind, I'd prefer to do it when Harry and I come back from our walk. By the way, is there a bakery nearby, where I might find a good pastry? I'm really in the mood for one."

All the anger Harry felt melted away instantly, and was replaced with pride. When he joined Luna in the living room he found Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon and Dudley huddled in a corner as if Luna had herded them there like sheep. Harry took Luna's hand and was about to lead her out of the room, when he was startled by Aunt Petunia's voice.

"I normally use the local bakery, about six blocks from here. It's called Montgomery's," she said haltingly in response to Luna's earlier question. Rather than look at Luna she pretended to adjust the apron around her waist.

Uncle Vernon and Dudley looked at Aunt Petunia as if she'd just uttered a curse word. Harry was, quite frankly, stunned. He never would have believed it. Aunt Petunia had given Luna directions to the bakery, and not only that she'd been quite civil about it. Maybe there was something else in the air besides pine and cinnamon.