Fic: Planes of Existence (Harry/Luna)
To: andarta_w
From: permasmile_

Title: Planes of Existence
Author: permasmile_ aka bsafemydeers
Recipient's name: andarta_w
Rating: NC-17
Pairing(s): Harry/Luna
Warnings (if any): Luna Lovegood's thoughts.

i.

Harry Potter had not expected to be so deeply affected by the news that several Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff seventh-years had been kidnapped from Hogwarts, from their beds in their dorms. After all, Ginny was in Gryffindor, and his official comments on Ginny Weasley consisted of I don't have time for romance.

It wasn't as if he didn't care for the students who'd been taken by Death Eaters. He ached for every single person harmed by Voldemort and his followers. Even if he'd never met them, he stared at their pictures, memorizing faces and names.

But a person could only take so much of that before becoming jaded, and Harry Potter was well on his way to being jaded. He'd hardly stirred when a breathless Hermione reported the small siege on Hogwarts. He sat and stared out the window, listening to the sound of Hermione's shoes on the floor, clicking back and forth as she talked.

"Ginny's terribly upset," she finally said, and Harry turned around.

"It's not like the Death Eaters haven't attacked Hogwarts before. She wasn't hurt, right?" His eyebrows furrowed. "You said she was okay."

"She is. Physically." Hermione dropped into the chair opposite him, shivering a bit. "I don't know why you keep this room so cold, Harry," she said offhand, wrinkling her nose up.

"I like it cold," he said with a shrug. "It's my room. Office and bedroom, all in one..." He allowed himself a tiny grin. Percy's words, though Percy had been far more enthused about such a prospect.

"Heroes," muttered Hermione, and smoothed her skirt. "Listen, Harry, she really is upset. Luna Lovegood was one of the students taken." The young witch continued talking, something about the nature of Luna and Ginny's friendship, but Harry had already stopped listening.

Luna. For some reason, he was jolted. His stomach twisted uncomfortably, as it sometimes did when he saw Luna. Though he had mentally catalouged her as attractive, she was still... very strange looking, and very strange acting, and... very strange indeed.

"I enjoyed the meetings, too. It was like having friends."

He shook his head. You relate to her. She can see the thestrals, he thought, still dimly hearing Hermione talking on. She lost her mum... she saw her die.

"Harry!"

"What? Sorry, Hermione. I got lost in thought." He gave his friend a sheepish grin.

"Honestly. Listen, I know that you've stopped going on the rescue missions yourself, which is all well and good, because we need you alive, but our intelligence indicates that these students are in a fairly unprotected place. We believe that they're going to be made Death Eaters, with any resisters being drained of magic for Voldemort." Hermione crossed her arms, breathing out a tiny cloud into the chilly air. "Ginny approached me, and yes, I know that you won't see her or speak to her because of that thing with Malfoy, but she's so worried about Luna. I'm afraid I am too. She's our friend, and you remember what--"

"--I remember," he said, voice clipped.

"I enjoyed the meetings, too. It was like having friends."

To fill the silence that Hermione left hanging, he said, "I'll go. But not for Ginny."


ii.

Hermione was correct, as usual, and the holding cells, located in an abandoned factory in the middle of the countryside, were poorly guarded. It was almost child's play to stun the few low-level Death Eaters, and walk inside.

It was, however, far more difficult to deal with those he and his team had rescued. The students' eyes shone with admiration and hope, and it made Harry's eyes sting. He'd felt like them once, seeing Dumbledore stride into action, so nimble and swift for an old man... enough.

Harry patted most of them on the arm, shaking hands like the celebrity he was, and let his other team members, led by the much matured Creeveys, free the prisoners. Most of them, anyway. Since he'd been convinced to come on this mission to ensure the safety of one Luna Lovegood, he was going to do so.

She was easy enough to find, sitting on the floor of her cell amongst the dirty ruins of a bale of hay. There was absolute serenity in her expression, as if she'd not been afraid a single moment.

Maybe she hadn't, he thought. It seemed hard to really affect her one way or another.

"Hello, Harry Potter," Luna said, her expression shifting to one of delight. "I believe you're somewhat short for a Death Eater, so you must be here to help me."

"Yeah," he said, biting back his own smile, and tapping the lock on the door open with his wand. "Don't make a habit of this, got it? I have, er, lots of work that I left behind. Maps and stuff."

"Of course," said Luna, rising to her feet. There was a clumsy clunking sound, and she looked down, shifting her feet to reveal the shackles. "I didn't think you would come personally. It's very hard to get rescued by Harry Potter in these times." She smiled down at him as he knelt to take care of the shackles.

"Glad to see you're okay," he muttered in return, feeling that nervous twisting. He was glad to see her okay, and not just because her smiling face had so easily replaced Cho's ghastly death mask, stilled tears on hollow, dirty cheeks, whyhadn'themadeitontime--

"I suspect from your expression you're imaginging something ghastly," said Luna, crouching at his level. "I know that I haven't washed in several days, but it's not that bad." Her round eyes peered intently at his face, and one dirty hand rested on the place where his neck met his shoulder. "I am actually very clean in the places that count."

"What?"

Luna giggled faintly, and pulled him to his feet. "That's better. I do prefer a confused Harry Potter to a morose Harry Potter."

"You haven't let go of my hand," he observed. He'd discovered that hanging around Luna was a surefire way to have the most inane and bizarre things come out of one's mouth.

"No, I haven't," she said, as if he was very astute indeed. "I've had such a lack of human contact. It happens when you're held prisoner, especially by a cult so full of machismo. I've always thought so, anyway. Will you mind terribly if I hold your hand on the way out?"

"I enjoyed the meetings, too. It was like having friends."

Harry almost smiled, despite the dankness of the cell and the spiderwebs looming above head, and Colin's still shrill voice narrating the entire adventure echoing down the hall. "I guess that's fine."


iii.

Harry had expected his life to return to its usual patterns after the rescue. He would spend his days in meetings with the remaining members of the Order of the Pheonix, watch over the DADA classes at Hogwarts, now team-taught by Lupin and Tonks with a rotating roster of guest teachers, and then return to Ministry, now more of an apartment building than an office of any kind.

He would turn up his air conditioning unit and eat cold noodles from a Chinese place despite the plethora of Weasley foods in his tiny ice box. Hermione or Ron would come to visit, and sometimes they would both come, and they would complain about the temperature and his eating habits, and usually make some sort of reference to Ginny that he'd have to ignore.

At about one AM, he would fall asleep in his chair in front of a set of maps and books, and at about three AM, he would wake up from the nightmares where Cho stalked him through the alleys of London, sometimes wearing Ginny's face like a mask. He would stagger to his futon and collapse for the rest of the night, dreaming uneasily of shadowy figures in the fog.

But the night after rescuing Luna Lovegood, Harry was startled by a knock at his door at eleven PM, a time when no one usually visited him. "Hullo?" came Luna's voice through the heavy wood, and Harry let her in, scratching his head in bemused confusion.

"Hullo, Luna."

"Hullo," she said merrily, and set down a picnic basket. "My, you keep it delightfully brisk in here. I will remember to bring a sweater next time." Harry averted his eyes from her chest, where the chill outlined the pertness of her nipples under her blouse.

"It's good to see you?" he questioned. "But isn't it kind of late?"

"It's the perfect time of night for visiting. This way, when it becomes the witching hour, I'll already be settled in and neither of us will have to miss the time at all." She smiled with all the confidence of a master of logic, and began to unpack her basket. A bottle of wine and some potato chips, as well as two coffee mugs, were set before him.

Harry half-smiled, and closed the door, locking it with a sharp snap. "You've never visited before."

"You've never rescued me from Death Eaters before," she returned cheerily, and poured up two mugs of wine. "Also, Ginny wanted me to keep an eye on you."

The smile on Harry's face melted away. "She did, did she. Well, she can go--"

"--oh, Harry. I didn't say I was doing it because she told me to. You know, I am a very strong-willed girl. Daddy always said so. If I were ever to get lost in, say, the seventh or even thirty-seventh dimension, I would be able to come home because my will is strong."

"I think I can believe that," Harry said, collapsing on his chair.

"It could happen," Luna said. "How many planes of existance are there? Can we know? Perhaps, Harry, somewhere, we are a pair of mushrooms, nestled into a forest on the moon. I think that if I were a muggle, I would like to be the astronaut that picks us." She handed him his mug of wine. "I rather think I shall add that to my list of the other planes of existance."

Harry's head spun even without the wine. "Okay." He stared into the coffee cup, and finally took a gulp as Luna settled on his futon, her hair spilling palely over her shoulders. "Why did Ginny try to send you? And if you're not listening, why did you come?"

"Ginny wanted to make sure you're alright. She still loves you."

Harry raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

"She just loves shagging Draco more, I suppose," shrugged Luna. "They're pretty together, but then, so were the two of you. I imagine you might like to know, admit it or not, that he treats her well enough."

"Hermione," said Harry slowly, "thinks it's my fault for leaving Ginny alone to play doctor to him."

"Well," answered Luna, with a sage sip of wine, "you did leave her, and he did need tending to, and the female of the species does usually enjoy tending to others."

"Oh," said Harry, and suddenly needed another drink. "Why're you here, then?"

"I believe I just told you," said Luna, crossing her legs one over the other, and the litheness of the motion reminded Harry that Luna was, indeed, a female of the species.


iv.

So Luna came almost every night for a month, until Harry was waiting for her at eleven PM. Disappointingly enough, she did remember to wear sweaters, and therefore, the secret thrill of eyeing her cleavage was denied to Harry unless she got tipsy enough to get hot and remove the sweater, or unless she wore a very particular white sweater that happened to showcase said cleavage.

He supposed she was tending to him, in her very Luna-ish way of reading strange poems to him that she'd found or even written herself, and giving him wine or tea so that he would loosen up enough to talk to her about what sort of animal he might be on the twenty-fourth plane of existance or what the Muggles would do in case of an Inferi attack.

By now, they both sat on pillows on the floor, legs folded Indian-style and knees almost touching, the slight heat between them almost more than Harry could stand in the small office-turned-apartment.

Luna traced the grain of the wood floor with one finger, rubbing at it gently. "Draco Malfoy proposed to Ginny. Hermione will be her Maid of Honor."

Harry stared at Luna's hand for several minutes, and then said, "Why not you?"

"Because Ginny likes boys. I rather do too. Sometimes I think about taking all their clothes off and touching them."

"No," said Harry, grinning in spite of the fact that his ex-girlfriend was going to become a Malfoy. "Why aren't you the Maid of Honor?"

"Because I spend all my time with you," said Luna, looking vaguely surprised. "Ginny associates me with you now, and I don't think she would ask you to be the Maid of Honor either. We're still supposed to attend, though. I'm to bring you."

A little dumbfounded about how all of this had come to be, Harry had to take another few minutes to sort it out, during which Luna sipped her white wine quietly. "Luna, did you become my girlfriend when I wasn't looking?"

"I am a girl, and I am your friend," she said, and for the first time, Luna Lovegood looked distinctly nervous.

"You know what I mean," Harry said, with a touch of gravity, and was surprised to see Luna stand, backing towards the door a little bit. "Where are you going?"

"I-- well, you see, at first you needed looking after, and I wasn't maybe anyone's first choice for the job, but I took a crack at it, and I wasn't half bad, so I kept coming, and it was like--"

"I enjoyed the meetings, too. It was like having friends."

"Like having a friend?"

"Like having someone to love." Loony Lovegood, eccentric extraordinare, looked away from him with a rosy blush on her cheeks and across the delicate bridge of her nose.

Harry stared at her, and then he looked at her. She was standing with her arms down and her hands half-curled at her sides, heavy beaded bracelets dripping down her wrists. Her white-blond hair curled down appealingly over her shoulders and was highlight against the huge black sweater that reached all the way to the middle of her thighs. Her thighs were bare and pale, with only a hint of her old uniform skirt peeking out, and her legs were so lovely his chest contracted.

When had her face become dear enough that his stomach dropped at the sight of her lowered lashes and bitten lips?

"Luna," he said, and stood as well.

"I think that I've been too bold," said Luna with her head still down. "This is not necessarily a dimension in which I am to be with you. Maybe there isn't a dimension in which I am to be with you. I just... thought maybe."

"Luna," he said, "when did you get beautiful?" His voice was raspy and he sounded like an ass, so he knew that he was in deep for her.

A tiny sphinx smile appeared on the down-turned face of the girl in front of him. "Well, I got breasts last year, Harry."


v.

Luna left that night with a sad smile and her hair hiding one of her eyes, and Harry fell asleep in his chair again.

He dreamed of making love to Luna in the snow, with the clean cold white around them and her rosy nipples blushing under his attentions. When he woke up with a start, he grasped hold of his cock for the first time in several months and pulled himself off to a roaring climax. After crashing down on the futon, he dreamed of making love to Luna in a lake of gelatin, the orange stuff in their hair and coating their stomaches.

She didn't come back the next night, or the night after that, and Harry had to leave his room at nine PM to humble himself.

"Hullo, Malfoy," he said to the blond who answered Ginny's door. "I need to speak with Ginny."

Malfoy stared at him, and as Ginny approached the door, Harry said, "Don't worry. I'm not here to get her back or anything. Really, this isn't a... Harry and Ginny sort of dimension."

"Ginny," said Malfoy, stepping back to allow his fiancee the door, "Potter's cracked. I'm getting him a shot of whiskey. We have a responsibility to the world, and that is not to let their boy saviour out like this." He disappeared, leaving Ginny in the doorway.

"What is it, Harry? You haven't spoken to me in months."

"Right," said Harry, shifting his weight. "I need to know where Luna lives. I want to visit her tonight."

"I'll write down her address," said Ginny, with big eyes. "You can't floo?"

"No fireplace in my office. Room. Thing, you know, that Percy suggested." Harry blew out a long breath, watching it steam up in the biting air.

As Malfoy returned with a shot of firewhiskey, Ginny sent him back into the kitchen to get a pad of paper and a quill, and handed Harry the shot herself.

"I'm sorry," she finally said, watching Harry down the drink.

"Me too," said Harry, gasping for breath. "Shit. Malfoy's people get the good stuff. Er-- I mean, I didn't mean to be a total bastard. Or maybe I did. I just didn't get it."

"There wasn't a lot to get. I shagged Draco in the common room. I should have..."

"What? Owled me first?" Harry let out a bitter laugh.

"I don't know," Ginny sighed, and was handed a scrap of paper and a quill by Malfoy, who eyed Harry with less suspicion than earlier.

"Lovegood?" questioned Malfoy.

"Yeah."

"Not bad. Great legs."

Ginny glanced up. "What was that?"

In a moment filled with the most comradery he'd ever shared with Draco Malfoy, Harry hid a snigger. "Nothing, Ginny."

"That's right," said Ginny, tucking the paper into Harry's hand. She smiled, her cheeks bright from the cold. "It was good to see you, Harry. You don't look nearly as awful as Ron and Hermione said." She paused a moment, as if searching for the perfect words. "And really, I'm sure that if Luna didn't prance around in those giant jumpers, you'd both appreciate her tits far more than her legs."


vi.

Luna wasn't home, of course.

She currently lived, of all the places she could have chosen, in a Muggle apartment building in the northern part of London. The bell up to her apartment seemed to work, but she clearly was nowhere to be found, and if Harry had not been so sure she wouldn't go back to his place ever without an invitation, he would have gone home.

Eleven PM rolled around, and then eleven-thirty, and then eleven-forty-five, and finally, he heard a footstep that he'd been listening for every night, a soft waltz down the pavement.

"Harry?"

"Hullo, Luna."

"You can't come in," she said, trying for a bit of haughtiness. "I haven't any room for confusing boy heroes."

"I didn't mean to confuse you," he said, standing, hands shoved in his pocket, watching the way her breath curled around her head like a wreath of cloud.

Luna looked away from him as she walked up the steps, past him to the door.

"Really. I do think you're beautiful, and I think that maybe... this is our plane. Of existance. And I think that you should come with me to the Weasleys' for Christmas, because it's coming up." He shivered, crossing his arms over his chest now, and rubbing his biceps. "And I think that it's kind of cold, and that I'd like to be warm. With you." He groaned. "I think I'm going to shut up now."

Luna wasn't even a foot away, and he could smell tea on her hair and see a tiny blue vein in her pale cheek, almost obscured by her hair. "I have a fireplace," she said, finally. "It's nice."

"I'd like to see it," Harry said, trying to not sound like he was begging.

"I'm cold too."

That tiny admission killed him, and Harry surged forward, pinning Luna against the door in a kiss. Her mouth was open under his as naturally as skies and nighttime, and he could feel her fingers working to undo the front of her coat, so he pitched in and helped, pushing his cold fingers up her shirt. Luna mewled at the touch, her skin feverish under the cool stroke of his fingertips.

He had her skirt hiked up around her hips in seconds, and he marvelled at her slick heat against his hands. Her eyes became half-lidded as she slid a small, cold hand to his own stomach, tracing his navel and down his hipbone. With a ragged breath, Harry groaned, "Oh, oh god. I want you so badly that I don't... don't even know where to start."

"You don't?" gasped Luna back, right into the cold, pink shell of his ear.

He laughed, and found the warm hollow of her throat with his tongue. "I mean, I know what I'm doing, I just want to do so much that I can't decide."

"I've an idea, to start us out," she said, the words laborious with Harry's hand cupping her right breast.

"What would... that be?"

"Since you've already got my skirt up," whispered Luna, her cheeks burning from the cold and from being rubbed so intensely against Harry's, "I believe you should fuck me against the door. Then--"

"--I can take you upstairs and have you any way I want, right?" A slow grin crossed Harry's face as he realized he'd found her clit with his thumb, and he stroked tiny circles across the nub.

Luna's only answer was a tiny cry like a star shooting across the heavens.

They fumbled until Harry's pants were down, and though he could feel the wind gusting up under his coat to his bare ass, he found that there was plenty of time to rub the head of his cock against Luna's entrance until they were both panting.

"Harry," she moaned, and then murmured to him, "Harry."

"Mmm," he answered, kissing her thoroughly.

As their mouths broke apart, she tried to follow the kiss, only nip at his lower lip. "Harry Potter, you are ruining me for all other planes of existance."

He slid into her then, unable to stand it any longer, and fucked her in the middle of the cold December night, with her hair and skin shining like the snow and the moon, her cunt hot and wet and enough to make him sweat like July.

When they had both come, panting and making small sounds of pleasure, it was hard not to collapse onto the icy steps, but Luna managed to get her key, and Harry realized at some point they'd made it to a bed in her apartment.

"Luna," he said, meaning to say he loved her, because it was true and it was bursting his heart, "have I really ruined you for all other planes of existance?"

Luna looked up from where she had been tracing constellations on his thigh. "Oh, yes," she said. "You certainly have."