What Shakes The Elephant

What Shakes The Elephant

Chapter 37 – She Lives With An Orange Tree

Harry stood before the fireplace and debated with himself. He stared hard into the empty hearth, imploring that it provide him with the answers that he could not come up with himself. But the longer he stared at the stone, the more Harry knew that no one else could provide answers for him. Still, he stared into the fireplace and fought an endless battle.

Draco had sent word to him a week ago. He had said that the talk with Luna had provided a new lead and that they needed to visit her in a week’s time. Without giving any useful information at all and keeping Harry on what felt like a short leash, Draco had ended the letter.

Today was the day they had agreed to go visit her and Harry was already supposed to be at Malfoy Manor. Luna had arranged a Portkey for them to get to her home as it was not on the Floo Network.

But something stilled Harry’s feet, questioning his heart and forcing him to reevaluate the situation.

Was it really necessary for him to show up with Draco? Why couldn’t the blond go alone? Or, better yet, why couldn’t Harry go alone without Draco? Why did they need to go through with the whole thing together? Surely one of them could visit Hogwarts and get the Acromantula poison while the other convinced the Phoenixes to cry. It made much more sense to Harry.

But the better part of him reminded him that this was his assignment for work and that Draco was only doing this to help him. What other motivation could he have to go through all this trouble?

--Probably looking to take the glory for the cure if we find it and use it to advance his political career.—

Harry immediately scolded that tiny part of his psyche. The voice had been so small and quiet, festering at the back of his mind, building up power until all the other arguments quieted. It was the cowardly and vengeful part of his mind and Harry did not like it at all.

He couldn’t allow himself to think of Draco that way. He wasn’t that kind of person anymore. He did not care what Ron said, what people thought, Draco was a better man than that.

Wasn’t he?

The knowledge that he had used Harry physically just to get his wand back gnawed at Harry’s mind and stomach, giving him horrible aches. He did not want to think of it that way… but he couldn’t ignore what was right in front of his eyes, could he?

Harry sighed heavily and glanced around the room. Lily was already gone. He had dropped her off with Seamus again. He hadn’t gotten to see his old schoolmate much since the war had ended but, still, he had accepted to take Lily for a day or two here and there when Harry needed it. He said it was his way of helping Harry after Ginny’s death.

Harry was endlessly grateful to him and his wife, Meredith (nee Cassidy). Lily also greatly enjoyed spending time with another girl her own age, as Rose was older than she. Maureen was a lovely little girl with Seamus’ hair, nose and smile, but Meredith’s eyes and calm demeanour. Harry had immediately felt comfortable leaving Lily with them.

So she was gone and he was alone now with nowhere to go but to see Draco. His heart clenched and he felt strangely as though he was about to tear in half. Part of him could stay behind and sulk and the other could willingly go forward to see this man that tormented and appeased him so. It was odd, but Draco did manage to do both.

Harry rolled his eyes at himself and took a step forward, digging his hand into the vase of Floo powder, and moved into the fireplace.

“Malfoy Manor!” he cried out, disappearing in a whirl of green flames. The homely little mess of a sitting room that Harry once called home disintegrated before him and turned into the vast and elegant sitting room of the Manor.

Somehow, it was still welcoming to him, despite the drastic difference in décor and size. He almost wished that it felt cold and sterile, as though that might make it easier for him to be angry with Draco, but it did not.

He looked up and his eyes immediately fell on a very displeased looking Master of the house. Draco tapped his foot gently against the ground and glared at Harry with his arms crossed over his chest. If Harry had been anyone else, that glare would likely have seemed incredibly frightening. But this was Harry.

And he would not let himself be intimidated by Draco now.

He took a step forward, his face set and determined not to feel guilty. Draco had no right to feel wronged at all. None. That was Harry’s current position and he was not going to give it up so easily.

“You’re late,” he said curtly. Harry frowned. Wonderful welcome, that was.

“I’m here,” he replied unusually. His voice was hard and lacked emotion. He put across a rather frigid front but, in truth, he was shuddering inside, trying to cope with the confusion and inexplicable pain that this caused him.

“Good excuse,” Draco sneered, displeased. He walked up to Harry and held out a broken ruler. Harry did not take it.

“What is going on?” he asked, needing to know more before they walked into another situation unprepared. “What exactly are we going to do?”

Draco turned up his nose and his lips curled into a snarl. He did not appreciate the questioning and lateness bothered the blond even more. Harry, apparently, was just aggravating the hell out of him today.

“We are going to go collect Phoenix tears from a group of birds living near her home,” he said shortly. “Now take the damn Portkey before it disappears without you.”

Harry brought his hand up to the ruler, all the while glaring at the man before him. The ruler wasn’t still for a moment before the world blurred around them and they began spinning uncontrollably through the air into a completely new location.

As the movement slowed and stopped, Harry and Draco both found themselves thrown against a tree. Harry landed hard against Draco’s chest and found his head buried in Draco’s neck before they managed to come back to their senses.

Harry immediately peeling himself off the other man and brushed himself off. Then, Harry noticed something incredibly strange. He looked back at Draco who was dusting off his own robes, leaves tangled in his otherwise perfect hair. He plucked at them and shook out his locks, leaving the blond tresses to fall over his face just the way Harry loved.

But there was no snow at all.

Now, this struck Harry as wonderfully unnatural considering it was late January and, though snow was not necessarily omnipresent this time of year, the cold surely was.

But it was not cold either.

In fact, it was comfortably warm. It felt, to Harry, like a breezy summer day in July. The sun shone down through the foliage onto his face and warmed his skin. The grass was lush and vibrant green. The trees had leaves and there was not a snowflake in sight.

This was not normal.

He turned around to observe his surroundings and then, after a few moments of visually exploring the forested area, his eyes fell upon Luna’s house.

It was Harry’s idea of perfection, really.

The quaint little cottage was covered in vines that climbed the stone like moss. Odd flowers bloomed along the green sides and the strange shapes and colours of the plants gave the house a unique look that Harry knew only Luna Lovegood could pull off.

The stone was reddish and old, looking as though the house had been there for centuries but never turned to ruin. There were flowers and plants in odd places along the path that led to the front door. On the porch, in front of the door and obscuring parts of the windows, were ornaments of all sorts, glinting in the bright sunlight. Some ornaments dangled in long chains of charms that reminded Harry of wind-chimes; others sat along the stairs or else adorned the frames of the door and the spaces between the plants littered along the front lawn.

There was a crup sleeping towards the left of the porch and a number of puffskeins curled around it. A purplish cat was lingering behind a bush with unidentifiable berries and odd looking birds were perched atop the eaves that lined the roof.

The front door was a deep burnt red with scrawled runes and markings along the wood. The ‘welcome’ on the mat before the door was an ambigram and so would read the same way upside-down as it did right side up. This amused Harry as he thought that only Luna would suggest that anyone needed a welcome to walk back into nature, like they did to walk out of it.

Harry and Draco both stood in muted amazement at the house before them and the unnatural weather conditions that surrounded it. Draco, Harry noticed, did not seem as wonderfully enthralled by the look of the house, but mildly affronted. He rolled his eyes to himself and began to walk forward, leaving the blond to continue to stare in shock.

Soon, Draco stepped up with him and they made their way down the wobbly path, avoiding the plants as they could, in order to knock on the door. Even as they walked, the tension between them chafed at their elbows and turned the simple journey down the pathway into some kind of competition. Neither increased their speed, but they tensed and went on.

Why was Draco doing this? Why was he acting so cold and uncaring now? Harry had not seen him this way in… well perhaps ever. He behaved more like Lucius now than he ever did and Harry desperately wanted to know why. He turned to look more fully at Draco, questioning him silently and pleading for him to stop. Harry did not want this pain, he did not want there to be a rift between them, yet, at the same time, he could not let down his own front.

As he thought, Harry realized that they both had stopped walking and that Draco’s eyes, while unchanged in size, glinted strangely in the light now and his face had tensed. Harry followed his gaze and turned see a man standing on the front porch, waving at them with a bright smile on his face.

He was completely naked.
“Welcome!” he called out in accented English. Harry sought to quickly avert his eyes from the man’s painfully obvious package and stared determinately at his face.

He was pale and had blond hair, but unlike Draco it was a yellow-blond and not platinum. It was tainted with brownish locks and odd greenish tinges. His eyes were the kind that couldn’t seem to decide between blue, grey or green and so ended up in some mottled shade of the three that somehow seemed brown to Harry. His skin was also not as perfect and porcelain as Draco’s was. It was rugged and scraped in places, telling tales of the life he must have lived.

“Er, hi,” Harry replied because he knew that Draco was transfixed by the whole ordeal. A blush had crept up on Harry’s cheeks and the heat of it was making him dizzy.

“You must be Harry and Draco,” he went on. Harry could not place the accent for the life of him. While he struggled to pay more attention to the inflections in the man’s voice than his nude figure, Draco seemed to snap out of his coma and retrieve his scathing attitude.

“Yes,” he answered in one harsh word that held an arsenal. He looked the man up and down without reserve at all. “And who are you?” he asked. The question stopped there but was clearly meant to go on to ask why the man was nude.

Oddly enough, this naked man who knew their names did not seem to notice Draco’s rudeness. Or, if he did, he made no show of it. He simply continued on smiling and held out his hand to shake the other blond’s.

“I’m Rolf,” he began happily. “Rolf Lovegood.”

Draco and Harry both stared at him. Luna’s cousin? Was he a sibling they never talked about because he had an aversion to clothing? Was he some distant relative once removed that happened to come pay her a visit on the same day Harry and Draco were scheduled to arrive?

“Rolf…” Draco repeated before Harry could. Again, he said one thing, but he clearly meant to question the last name rather than the first. Rolf smiled more brightly.

“Yes,” he answered. “I’m Luna’s husband.”

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A/N: AHHH I’m SO SO SO SO SO sorry for not posting yesterday and I’m afraid only one chapter tonight. I’ve begun frosh week (or fresh week or orientation week, or whatever you want to call it) because I’ve transferred universities and yes… its dead tiring. I didn’t realize that it would be so draining but I find that all I ever want to do is sleep. FEAR NOT.

Frosh ends on Saturday/Friday night so I will be back to posting again regularly. Even when school starts for me, I should be fine to post once a day. And I promise I’ll make it up to you all. The smut is SO CLOSE YOU SEE! SO CLOSE!

And Rolf.

Yes, Rolf. According to J.K. Rowling, Luna goes on to marry a man named Rolf, who has other specifications about him (though I think she came up with them off the top of her head and was not being serious). Nevertheless, I am taking these specs and making him a REAL PERSON BAHA.

Yes, you all think I’m mad but I’ll explain in the next chapter.

Also, I figured that Rolf would take Luna’s name, rather than vice versa? Why? Because Luna rocks and Lovegood is just too fantastic of a name. And they are a very strange family.

Yeah.

Makes sense to me. I’ll explain more when I’m not so cracked up on college spirit. Whoever said that frosh week is not tiring is a liar. And, please all, if you are ever taunted with the promise of group cheering and school spirit, DON’T BUY INTO THE HYPE!

Haha. I’ll shut up now.

I LOVE YOU ALL!

Your reviews make me smile and become more excited to keep writing. I worship Ravenqueen and welcome all new readers!

Seriously, I adore you. Yes you. Please don’t think I’m mad. *bows out*