I hope our story has a happier ending

turns volatile

"What are you up to, Luna?"

The other girl smiles up at Hermione from her modified muggle laptop; Harry had braided her hair, so her face is fully visible for once, eyes popping with the matched shade of the t-shirt she'd borrowed from Harry when her own blouse felt uncomfortable.

"Working on an article for the Quibbler," she smiles, eyes happy as they always are when she mentions her father's publication.

Sofia peeks up at her brother's girlfriend from where she hums while coloring, laying down on the carpet. She's only ever half-interested in what they're doing when Ginny's not around—she'd quickly decided the redhead was the coolest person on the planet, and stuck to her like glue whenever she was over.

(She's similarly infatuated with Blaise, who's visited twice now, partially because of his status as Ginny's soul mate and partially because of his own snarky charm and propensity for funny insults.)

"What's this one about, Lu?" Harry asks, eyes genuinely interested from his seat at the chess board with Ron, a hand absently moving to pet Crookshanks in his lap.

"How the exploitation of centaur habitats is both morally wrong and contributing to climate change." Luna makes a face. "I know it feels hard for things like that to matter when there's a war on the horizon—it's difficult to take a threat that seems so far away seriously when just surviving through to graduation feels impossible. But if something doesn't change soon, there'll be nothing left when we do survive." She rolls her eyes. "Not that people should need a self-serving reason to care about other creatures, but I'll appeal to whatever I have to."

Hermione gives her a bright smile. "I love you." She sighs, tilting her head onto Luna's shoulder. "Always, but especially when you're fighting for what's right. I'm so glad I have you."

"We were destined to be friends," Luna grins with a wink, knowing how the mention of fate will make Hermione groan, giggling when the brunette mimes retching.

Hermione fades into silence, book in front of her but thoughts far away from its contents.

She thumbs at the necklace around her throat—a simple but beautiful piece, silver with the smallest red gem at the center, one Draco'd managed to coerce Blaise into buying under the guise of a peace offering for his girlfriend's best friend so that Hermione could wear it freely.

After a few minutes Sof grows tired of her coloring book, abandoning it to clamber over on the couch with a modified muggle toy, leaning up against Hermione until she makes room for Sofia to put her head in her lap.

(Hermione rolls her eyes at the younger girl's attempts to bat the book out of her hands, disinclined toward reading as she is.)

"Any new word from the Order on what's happening?" Ron asks as he takes out one of Harry's pawns.

(He doesn't ask if there's any word from Draco—they'd all learned weeks ago that bringing the matter up sent Hermione into an anxious panic.)

(And given that they hadn't heard from him since the start of summer...if there were any news on that front, she would've brought it up before anything else.)

Hermione lets out a weary sigh, ignoring the annoyed faces Sofia makes when the movement of her diaphragm jostles her head. "Just that he's recruiting, and trying to cause as much damage as he can while he does to weaken us before the direct fighting begins. There's a lot of instability in the Ministry since they're going through the process to replace Fudge. It's looking like it'll be the head of the Auror Office, Scrimgeour; Tonks isn't a huge fan of his, but she says he's definitely not corrupt nor as big of an idiot as Fudge, so that's something at least."