He gave a nod back. "And, you? Do you See yourself happy... safe... into the future?"
"Yes, I do," she smiled; "Now we're together."
He smiled back and moved in for a cuddle... which turned into more in short order.
A little while later, breathing just a little heavily, she said, "You know... for someone who's lived a celibate life, especially for the past three-plus years, you sure are a randy bugger."
He chuckled and replied, "I think it might be because I've got a lot of catching up to do."
She gave a huff of amusement and quietly replied, "Liar. You're just a randy bugger."
He laughed.
Unknown to the five in the Black Townhouse, elsewhere in magical Britain things were moving from a constant state of simmering tension to boiling.
The Dark Lord, Riddle/Voldemort, was getting quite frustrated with his minio― Death Eaters. After a week of not hearing anything from any of them about the whereabouts of the Peverell Lord, he summoned his Inner Circle to a meeting.
"Why has no one found him?" he angrily demanded. "It cannotbe that difficult for any of you to track down where he is and give him my invitation!"
Malfoy, his 'executive officer', knew it was his job to reply. "Since his trip to visit the Bones traitor, My Lord, he has gone to ground. None of our spies have seen him. Nor do our spies within the Ministry claim he has again visited Bones."
Voldemort now knew 'Peverell' had visited Bones. And that he'd done so via direct floo to her office, leaving the same way less than an hour later. However, they did not learn of that until hours later; when the 'faithful' auror, who'd overheard from one of those who'd also attended, reported it. Since then, they'd fixed things by kidnapping certain senior aurors so they'd know much faster.
"Find him!" Riddle demanded. "Whatever it takes, I want him willingly before me."
Malfoy looked to one of his remaining friends, Goyle Senior, and gave the man a look of intense worry. Neither said a word.
After a further week of having to put up with the auror presence, Dumbledore finally managed to get enough support together within the Wizengamot through judicious use of the floo system to get the aurors removed from Hogwarts.
As soon as he did and close to the same time Riddle held his meeting, the so-called Light Lord, Dumbledore, summoned his most faithful supporters to a meeting. He was getting quite frustrated with his minio― Order after a week of not hearing anything from any of them, even with the constant auror presence until that day, about the whereabouts of the Peverell Lord.
"Why has no one found him?" he angrily demanded. "It cannotbe that difficult for any of you to track down where he is and let us know so we can capture him!"
Tonks, who he believed to now be his 'executive officer' after Moody resigned, replied, "Since his trip to visit Minister Bones, he's gone into hiding again. No one's seen hide, nor hair, of him since."
Dumbledore now knew 'Peverell' had visited Bones. And that he'd done so via direct floo to her office, leaving the same way less than an hour later. However, they did not learn of that until hours later; when the person in the Magic Detection Grid office, who'd overheard from one of those who'd also attended, reported it.
"Find him!" Dumbledore demanded. "Whatever it takes, I want him captured and brought before me!"
Tonks glanced to Remus and rolled her eyes. Neither said a word.
What had Dumbledore in such a royal snit was that he'd been, yet again, rebuffed by the Longbottom Matriarch in trying to speak with 'young Neville'. Oh, he knew he could beat the woman one-on-one in a duel; but, not while she was in the Longbottom manor. After all, the magics of the manor aidedher. How else could the woman have so handily bested the likes of the LeStranges and Crouch Junior at the same time.
Now, if he could only get her... or, better yet... young Neville out of the Longbottom manor for a confrontation, he'd soon have them dancing to his secret jig.
He had no idea how 'young Neville' was able to rebel, considering the loyalty potion he was ensuring was in the boy's food. However, that was because he did not know Longbottom had an inkling of an idea someone would try to potion him - Ginny Weasley, he'd thought - so had, for the past six months, been only eating meals and imbibing drink prepared and brought to him by a Longbottom elf.
After being cooped up in the Black Townhouse for more than a week, Harry decided it was time for him to take Luna out on a date.
While teaching the other four the 'new' way of using magic took up a fair bit of time, he told them he'd basically taught them everything they needed to know and that it was now up to them all, individually, to improve using it themselves through constant practice. He did remain on hand, though, to offer the occasional suggestion when they seemed to hit a roadblock or two.
Since then he'd hit the books in the Black library reading everything he could he thought might be useful. And it wasn't just combat spells.
After teaching Harry how to 'goblin' salute and recognise a goblin saluting him, Sirius also learned Harry had no idea how to act as a proper wizarding Lord. So, Harry had to hit the books about that, too.
"It would take years to get a full wand-grip on everything you should know to be a Lord," explained Sirius. "So, we're going to first focus on everything you need to know, especially what you need to know right now."
That led to Harry practically spending a great deal of his day and evening studying books and, whenever he came across something he needed clarifications for, asking Sirius. Even Luna both learned a lot she needed to learn as being the future Lady of a House while also helping Harry learn what he needed to learn.
However, some of the things she handed him to read seemed a little odd, but he knew it was because she'd Seen something and knew he'd need that information before he'd otherwise learn it.
When he approached Sirius about somewhere he could take Luna for a date, his godfather grinned and immediately replied, "The Occluded Moon, if you're looking for a restaurant-type evening date. Otherwise, for daytime, I'd say just a picnic in the muggle world."
When he approached Luna, she beamed a wide smile back before her expression settled and she said, "First, I'd like to take you to visit both your parents' and my mother's graves. After that, we'll see." Surprised, he was a moment and about to say something before she added, "I know you've never visited your parent's graves before, Love. I think, you taking me to visit them so you can introduce me to them, plus me taking you to visit my mother's with the same intent, should be a good start to the day.
.
.
.
👓☕️Consider supporting me and enhance your reading experience with the ready-to-read PDFs I have on my Ko-fi.☕️👓
🎯https://ko-fi.com/cmrowling🎯