FIC: In Search of a Dingering Dampfuzzle (Harry/Luna)
To: pettybureaucrat
From: Your Secret Santa

Title: In Search of a Dingering Dampfuzzle
Author: t_quibbler
Pairing(s): Harry/Luna
Summary: Luna and Harry go on a bit of a winter holiday
Rating: Perhaps hard R
Warnings: None, albeit a slightly silly premise!
Author's notes: Hopefully it's your cup of tea, dear recipient; I'm worried now that it might be a bit tame but at least I'm certain I've steered clear from that which you did not request! :) Thanks to my beta, ~R, who did a great job editing my ridiculously complex sentences. Any mistakes are mine and mine alone!



"Dingering Dampfuzzle," Luna said happily, setting an armful of Harry's sweaters into the roomier than should be possible suitcase.

"Luna, that's an anteater. I've seen them," he insisted, tapping the page of the Quibbler with his finger. On it was a long, funny looking creature with gold and black fur and a long fuzzy snout. "At the zoo. Even if you managed to find one in Cornwall, which you won't because they're from South America and it's February in Britain, it wouldn't have magical properties, because it's an anteater." He sighed a mildly exasperated little sigh, knowing there was little point in trying to persuade his fiancée that a spontaneous weekend jaunt in search for a non-existent animal only three weeks before their wedding was in fact, a poor idea.

"No," she smiled, shaking her head. "I know what an anteater is; a Dingering Dampfuzzle is quite different actually. You should read the article before we go, that way you can help me spot them from the blind and we can go home all the faster."

"You're just after a photo right?" Harry asked, warily. He remembered the time Luna had brought home a kangaroo, or rather, a Hopping Rossfurl, to keep as a pet from her expedition in Australia.

Luna did not reply, but began to hum as she snapped the latches shut on the case.



Cornwall in February was not exactly what Harry would have considered pleasant. It was utterly freezing in the sleet and wind, sitting in what resembled a makeshift duck blind and staring out at the ocean. Apparently, Dingering Dampfuzzles were aquatic.

There were furs draped over them and tucked on the long slanted cushions Luna had conjured for them to lie on while they waited. It would have been better had they something else to do, but for the last two and a half hours Harry had been dozing in and out, reminding himself that one of the things he loved most about Luna was her eccentricities even if sometimes they could be tedious.

He gave a little sigh, and Luna turned her head to look at him, reaching her hand over under the blankets to squeeze his. "I know you're bored, it's okay," she said softly. "We can just sit for another little while and go in. I didn't know it would be this windy, I'm not sure a Dampfuzzle is going to come out when quite so cold, anyhow. The season usually isn't until the end of March but we'll be on our honeymoon then so I thought we could at least try first."

Blissfully, Harry thought of Thailand. He had no attachment to the place, he'd let Luna choose where she would want to go, but Thailand was warm, wasn't it? "Mmm," was all he trusted himself to say, rather than ask how much longer was ‘a little while.'

"Think warm thoughts," she whispered. "Hot cocoa in front of a fire, lying on cut grass that's been in the sunshine for hours, your fingers pruning in a hot shower while we do things you tell me are unmentionable in public."

Harry couldn't help but laugh, and Luna gasped at the loud noise after the hours spent listening to the shifting tides and windy afternoon. "Sorry," he winced, knowing that he'd just scared off any potential Dingering Dampfuzzles that he knew were not hiding in the water.

"Oh, it's alright," Luna sighed in her normal dreamy voice. "I haven't seen any signs of them today anyhow. We'll just try again tomorrow."

Not knowing – or particularly caring – what the signs of a nearby Dampfuzzle were, Harry grinned. "Does that mean we get to go back to the house?"

"Yes, we can go back to the house."

"Can we take a shower? Do unmentionable things?"

"Oooh, yes," she agreed, looking much happier. "It would be nice to get warm."

Harry scrambled out of the blind, wrapping the furs around himself and Luna as they stumbled through the sleet and wind to the small guest cottage she had rented for them. He felt half frozen, teeth chattering a little even as the let the blankets fall on the floor and dashed to the bathroom, Luna at his heels. Jerking his sweater over his head, Harry turned the water to run hot enough for steam as Luna pulled the laces from her boots with a gleeful grin.

She was adorable like this, her cheeks pink and her braided golden hair matted dark and wet against her head but joy in her eyes. It was as though the mood of the whole day had been lifted; the little cottage and the thought of playing together in the bath banishing the winter weather from their thoughts. Harry tugged off his denims and the long underwear he had protested at Luna's suggestion but come to appreciate around the hour mark in the blind. Luna shed the t-shirt of Harry's she had worn and hopped into the bath, pulling the tap so the hot water sprayed down onto her.

He was only a moment behind her and the two laughed as they ducked under the warmth of the water, jostling and nudging and nuzzling each other happily until their bodies began to warm up. Harry bumped her nose as he kissed her, not more than half a dozen centimeters taller, and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Warm yet?"

"Yes," she breathed, her lips curling up as they shared languid, slow kisses. This was Harry's comfort. Luna was quirky, some people said strange, but to him she was wise and unique and someone who he had grown to love for how surprisingly easy it was to be with her. She felt familiar under his hands, in a way that made him confident and contented. A small nip at the juncture of her neck and jaw would earn him a little murmur, fingers trailing the curve of her spine would make her press against him, and the proper caress of her bum could elicit a breathy whisper of his name.

Not to say things were already rote in the area of their sex life, as Harry wouldn't have predicted the sharp tug on his hair as he kissed her breast, the urgency of her kiss as she hooked her ankle around his, or the sound her long plait would make against his chest as she turned sharply, pressing the curve of her arse against him. He knew the slick, slippery feel of water on Luna's smooth skin that made her hips all the harder to keep hold of as he eased her legs apart, but he hadn't expected the little pale hand that reached between them to guide him impatiently into her.

Luna was an intuitive lover, and the two had been shy and inexperienced teachers to the other, so that now they moved against each other with a practiced rhythm, sensing each other without real words. A grunt, a pant, an unintelligible whisper – all were worthy replacements to talking if they weren't in the mood for it. Harry reached a hand to search for her clit, a way to give more pleasure, and the muscles of her back bent forward, arched. Her milky white skin like another assault on his senses, Harry pushed harder, faster, until finally he felt her body give way.

He came too, not knowing when her orgasm finished but eagerly returning the kiss she pressed to his lips when she turned to face him again, their arms wrapping around each other under the luke-warm fall of the shower.

"See," she murmured happily against Harry's mouth, running her fingertips lightly over his. "Pruny."

"And warm."