Faery Heroes

Chapter 14: The Good, the Bad, and the Stupid

Disclaimer: Did Dolohov get away with almost killing Hermione? If so, I don't own the Harry Potter franchise; it belongs to J.K. Rowling, Scholastic Press, Warner Bros., and whoever else she sold the rights to.
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The sound of steps pulled Harry's attention from the Charms journal he had been reading. As soon as he saw that the arrival was Miranda Granger, he knew things were about to become very awkward very quickly. He closed the magazine and tapped the convenient 'table' it had rested on. "Luna, it's about time we left."

She raised her eyes from her own material, a sultry romance novel she spotted in Hermione's room. With a nod of agreement she was off her lovers' laps, leaving him to catch the brunette's attention. "Mione," he said while he nudged her. There was no response, not an unusual occurrence, so he covered the pages of her book with one hand.

"I was reading that, Harry!" she snapped before she noticed her mother. "Oh."

"Yes, oh. Mrs. Granger, it was very nice of you to let us come over today, but Luna and I should go and leave you three to your dinner."

The older woman hesitated before shaking her head. "Are you sure you don't want to eat with us? It's no trouble."

"Thank you, but no," Luna said as she smoothed out her sundress, which had risen during her time on the couch. He blamed Hermione and her wandering hands. "Daddy is having some friends over, and he always wants me to meet them. Harry, though, would certainly be more than willing to join you."

"Wonderful, one more won't be a problem."

"Aren't I supposed to get a choice in the matter?" Harry wondered aloud.

The two women spoke simultaneously. "No." Luna leaned over and kissed him, then turned and did the same to Hermione. With her lovers happy and Miranda bemused, she bounded over to the bags of school supplies they had picked up in Diagon after their jaunt to Little Hangleton and Disapparated with a loud crack.

"Well," Miranda said after a few moments, "Hermione, your father's going to be a little late, but could you go ahead and set the table, please? If it's not too much trouble, Harry, would you help me make a quick salad? Hermione told me that you know your way around a kitchen."

"Of course, Mrs. Granger." They walked into the kitchen, and he set out a pair of knives while she pulled several vegetables out of the refrigerator. They worked in silence for a minute or two, the only noise coming from the chopping blades.

"Do you mind my asking a personal question?"

He glanced at the elder Granger. "I don't, so long as you understand I may choose not to answer."

"Hermione told me about the relationship between the three of you, and I was wondering what your views were about it."

So she's going to take an oblique approach. He had expected something like this to happen after the three of them decided to spend the rest of the day here. "It's not easy, not for any of us. Our relationship isn't any more normal to the magicals than it is to Muggles, so we have that to contend with, but we each have personal hurdles as well. Luna's been getting a crash course in Muggle life since both Mione and I grew up in this world, but I don't think she believed us until today when she could actually see what we were talking about. Though I adore both of them, I have two girlfriends who are extremely strong-willed and far more intelligent than I am, which can make it difficult for me to keep up with them when we disagree. Hermione... well, she still has issues occasionally with being in a trio rather than a couple, and it took her a while to accept her orientation."

"It's not all negatives, though. Your daughter is tied to what she reads in books, and sometimes it takes two people to remind her the most important parts of life can't be found in the library. Luna is a free spirit, but she needs us to keep her grounded; if we didn't, she'd disappear on a flight of fancy, with no one knowing where or how she was."