Luna hummed as she buttered half a loaf of bread. It was nice to be at her father's house again. Not that she wanted to move back home permanently, but the odd night of cooking him dinner and making sure he hadn't put his socks in the oven again was nice.

What was even better was that Harry was coming over. She was going to have dinner with her two favorite men and she was looking forward to it.

Xenophilius came into the kitchen and smiled at the sight of Luna dancing around.

"You know, you could move back here."

Luna twirled and kissed her father's cheek with a laugh. "You just say that because you want someone around who can locate your reading glasses."

"Maybe," he agreed. "I had this idea of putting one set in each room of the house and one set in the office. I lost all of them last week, though. And found a pair in the medicine cabinet."

Luna's laugh made him smile. He missed his Moon.

"I went and had that check up you've been pestering me about. It was a total waste of time, just like I predicted. Well, the medical part of it was, at least. Talking to the zombie was interesting. He's completely functional, at least at a glance. I didn't ask him about personal functions." He paused for a moment, his brow wrinkled. "Honestly, I don't want to know about his personal functionality."

"He said you were fine," Luna asked, mentally skipping over the whole zombie bit. She could care less if Theodore Nott was a zombie as long as he was a good healer. And she knew damned well that Ginny would not hire a substandard healer.

"He said I was perfectly healthy for a man of my age, my Moon. He gave me a clean bill of health and shuffled away."

She smiled and hugged him. "Wonderful news, Daddy. Absolutely wonderful."

"Yes, yes," he dismissed. "Now, I've heard a wonderful rumor about a form of Lobalug living in Loch Lochy. Do you think you'll have time to pop up there next month to check it out, or should I send Frank?"

Holding a bottle of wine in one hand, and a bouquet of flowers in the other, Harry shifted on the doorstep. He juggled both, trying to figure out a way to knock without dropping the bottle or the lilies. "Shite," he muttered, stuffing the flowers under his arm as he knocked.

Luna broke off her conversation with her father, they had moved from Lobalugs in Loch Lochy to the next Quidditch season, and headed towards the door. She couldn't help but smile at the sight of him struggling with flowers and wine.

"Let me take that," she said, snagging the flowers from under his arm. The stems were slightly bent, but that was fine. Few things were perfect, after all. The bent stems gave the lilies character.

"Daddy and I are in the kitchen," she told him, leading the way. "And I made chicken alfredo for dinner. I just need to toast the bread and we can sit down."

She kissed her father's cheek as she passed him in search of a vase. "Daddy, you remember Harry Potter."

"Yes, yes... Still with the dark hair this time? You looked rather splendid with the red and the freckles. You remember, from the wedding? You fit right into theWeasley family." He chuckled at the look on Harry's face. "Oh, yes, I know it was you. Now at least. Luna mentioned it a couple of years ago while I was chattering about what I had thought was our only meeting."

Harry looked down at his feet, grinning a bit. "I don't think I pulled it off as well as the others." He'd met Xenophilius before, but he hadn't been dating his daughter at the time. While dating Ginny, it had been different. Arthur and Molly already approved of him. He had no reason to think thatXeno didn't, but it was still an anxiety-ridden situation Harry found himself in.

He held up the bottle of wine. "I wasn't sure what kind of wine to bring. Does red go with chicken?"

"I've no idea," Xeno said seriously. "I'd suggest asking the bird, but it's a little preoccupied with the cooking at the moment." At Luna's arched brows, he sputtered. "The bird bird, dearest. Not you."

"I knew that, Daddy. The wine will be fine, Harry." She took the bottle of wine from him with a kiss on the cheek and set it on the counter. "Why don't you two go and sit at the table. I'll bring the food over in just a moment."

"Then give the wine back, Moon. I can pour it while we wait ever so patiently for your wonderful meal." Bottle in hand, he steered Harry toward the dinning room. "Have you heard anything aboutLobalugs in Loch Lochy, Harry?"

Luna shook her head and smiled. No doubt Harry would hate the conversation. She'd have to be sure to make it up to him later. Maybe with a soothing back rub.

"What," Harry asked, sitting at the table. "Oh! Um... no, I haven't. Why? Are they... bad this year?" He was completely out of his element. He didn't want to make Luna's father feel like he was being disrespectful, but he had norudding clue what the man was talking about.

Xeno laughed. "Well, they're there, so, yes, they are bad this year." He poured three glasses of wine and handed the boy one as Luna brought out a pan of chicken breasts covered in sauce.

"They're native to the North Sea. Surely you studied them in your Magical Creatures class? The Merpeople use them as weapons and trade them to wizards for potions ingredients. It really should have been covered in Care of Magical Creatures."

"Oh, yeah. I think we might have covered that when Hagrid was teaching." Harry frowned, remembering his half-giant friend. "It was in the section on Merpeople." He had tried to pay attention in class, for Hagrid's sake, but most of that information had exited his head the second he'd graduated. "Are you planning on doing a story for them in an upcoming issue? One of the witches in the tea room is always asking me what will be reported on next."

"Not this issue," he said. "Maybe the next one. Luna thinks that she will have time to pop up to Scotland to look into it then." He studied Harry for a moment. "As long as you can spare her, of course."

Harry coughed, snorting into his glass of wine. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, swallowing harshly. Clapping a hand to his chest, he looked through watery eyes atXenophilius. "The Quibbler is Luna's job, and it's important to her."

"It is now," Xeno agreed. "But will it always be?" He was prevented from saying anything else by Luna's reappearance with wonderfully golden garlic bread. "It looks delicious, Moon. Thank you for cooking.

"Thank you, Daddy. Let's just hope that it tastes as good as it looks. Did I hear you telling Harry about Loch Lochy?"

"You did. It was very interesting," Harry said, the smells coming from the plate Luna had set on the table good enough to make his stomach growl in response. "He told me you might be going to see some of them soon. That sounds interesting. I know you liked going to see... those other things... that one time." Feeling like an idiot for not remembering exactly what she'd gone to see last, Harry shook his head, taking another drink of his wine.

"Yes, those things were fascinating," she teased. "Actually, I was thinking of making a weekend trip of it. A nice relaxing weekend at a little inn by the loch. I even thought about inviting someone to join me." She sent a smile his way. "But I'm not sure he'll be able to skive off work for that long. He's a busy bloke."

Xeno chuckled into his plate, almost spewing bread crumbs. "I've always found that it's easier to just come out and ask, Moon."

Harry's scowl slid off his face when he realized what Luna had meant. "Oh. You meant me." Bloody idiot! Who did you think she meant? That Adam fellow she works with? Not bloody likely. "I think I could be persuaded to take a weekend off." When he realized what he said could be taken quite wrong, he looked over atXeno in alarm. "Not that I meant I needed to be persuaded, or that she even would persuade me. I didn't mean..."

"He knew what you meant," Luna assured him.

The rest of the dinner passed in relative peace and Luna left the men to their own devices as she did the dishes. Both of them had offered to help, of course, but she thought it was best to give them some time alone.

Xeno handed Harry a mug of dark ale and sat across the hearth from him. He was a good boy by all accounts. The Weasley's wouldn't have allowed him into their house if he wasn't.

"You have a dangerous job," the older man stated. "And a dangerous history. Have you taken any steps to make sure that neither will harm my daughter?"

Harry looked up sharply at Xenophilius, surprise on his face. Everything he knew about Luna's father, and it wasn't much, pointed to a man who was rarely serious and, for lack of a better word, whimsical. It made sense that the one thing he could deadly serious about was his daughter, however. Harry's palms were suddenly sweaty. He set the mug of ale down to avoid dropping it in the future in a fit of awkwardness.

"I would never knowingly put Luna in harm, sir, that I can promise you. The thought of Luna getting hurt because of me is... painful. I don't think I'd be able to live with that knowledge."

"Hopefully you will never have to." His mind went to his own precious wife, dead all these years. She'd kept his head in the real world, something that he had to struggle with after she was gone. He had a feeling that Harry was the opposite. Luna reminded him that not everything had to be work.

"My Moon is a good girl, Harry. And while I might want her to remain six forever, I know it's not possible. Is this... Is this a serious relationship between the two of you?"

He couldn't help the blank look on his face. Harry stared at Xenophilius for a long time. "What do you mean," he finally asked, his voice cracking a bit.

"I mean you're not going to run off with some Scottish bint and leave her in the lurch, are you? I don't think she could handle that again."

Harry's face darkened. "No. Never. I would never, never do that to Luna. She deserves better. So much better." Thinking of Seamus had a large, dark piece of Harry growling. What his former friend did to her... it was rage inducing. "Your daughter and me... I mean, Luna and I... she makes me a better man, sir."

"Women do that, Harry." Xeno looked around to make sure that Luna was not eavesdropping. He could hear her humming and the rattle of dishes from the kitchen. "Will there be a wedding and grandchildren in the future, do you think? I'm not rushing you," he said when he noticed the look on Harry's face. "If you're not ready to even think about it yet, then that's fine. I just want to gauge the direction of wind, so to speak."

Grandchildren? Wedding? Harry took a large drink of the ale Xeno had given him, drinking all that was in the glass. Coughing a bit as it burned down his throat, he looked at Luna's father with watery eyes. "I love your daughter, sir, but I don't know if I'm... if we're... ready for that. Yet."

Even as he was speaking, Harry was having flashes of a little boy with blond hair and green eyes. When had he started to think about what his and Luna's children would look like? It had to have been before today, before her father has asked. He had a perfect vision in his head of a child, one he knew was his and Luna's. Blinking a bit in shock, at himself more than anything, Harry automatically held his empty glass out.

Xenophilius summoned another bottle of ale from the kitchen and took a moment to refill Harry's mug.

"You're both young yet. And it might be a good idea to delay those kinda of thoughts until after the Liberi have been dealt with. Are you making any progress with that? You and your Order?"

He waved away the boy's splutters. "Yes, yes, you obviously know nothing about the Order of the Phoenix or of any outside plans to fight the Liberi. All sorts of interesting people talk to me about things, young Mr. Potter. Nothing I have any proof of, of course. Or would print even if I did."

Harry wasn't sure what to say. It was obvious Luna's father knew enough, but Harry was not the head of the Order, and he was not sure what could and couldn't be said. Then again, he trusted Luna, and Luna trusted her father. Nothing he'd ever heard or seen ofXenophilius Lovegood pointed towards the man having any blood prejudice what so ever. With his story on the "librarians", he was most likely already in danger.

"We're working as hard as we can."

"Good." Xeno looked up as Luna came into the room and settled on the couch beside Harry. The two of them looked good together.

"How are you getting on with your new roommates, Moon?"

"It took a bit getting used to, having a little one underfoot," she admitted. "But we're getting along just fine. You should come by and have dinner with us one night. I'm sure Jack would love to ask you all sorts of questions. That seems to be all that he does."

"Children are like that. Like sponques, drinking up every drop of information that they can get. You put up protections around the house? To make sure the boy was safe, correct?" He turned to Harry. "So many families have lost the traditions that we once observed, saying that they are hokey or ancient. It leaves them wide open for attacks bydects and maiachs and all sorts of nasty buggers. The Quib has put out the information, of course, but so many people dismiss it as rubbish."

"Yes, Daddy. I put up the protections. Especially that one you learned in Walla Walla. A very useful catch-all protection."

"Ginny Weasley used to live there. Arthur and her brothers made sure nothing could get through unless they wanted them to," Harry said. He'd always thought Orchard's Gate one of the safest place to stay, next to Grimmauld Place. It was one of the reasons he hadn't asked Luna to come live with him.

... that and the fact that he was afraid she'd say no. Or that it'd be a horrible idea and it would ruin everything for them. Or that she'd say no.

"Orchard's Gate is safe, sir. Very safe."

Luna smiled at Harry and put her head on his shoulder. He'd completely misunderstood what they had been discussing. Her father wasn't asking about wards against strangers. The charms she used were to protect against bad dreams and things the whole of the wizarding world didn't believe in any more.

But sometimes that was OK. Some creatures could only attack those who believed in them, oddly enough. And with the wizarding world's cynical view about there being nothing unexplained left, the creatures were slowly but surely dying out.

"Jack is also the Weasley's grandson," she reminded her father. "We're as safe as houses, Daddy."

I made sure of that. Harry sat his glass of ale on a side table and leaned back against the sofa, his arm reflexively going around her shoulders.

"That's good to know," Xeno said with a smile. Yes, he thought the two of them worked very well together.




[Summary: Luna and Harry have dinner with her father.]