Don't Look Back In Anger (Completed)

Chapter 19: The Story is Retold

Harry kissed both girls goodnight before he left their bedroom. Like him, Hermione was probably too wired to sleep at the moment but Luna was exhausted. There was no way either Hermione or Harry wanted Luna to be alone so Hermione would stay, with Harry promising to visit and spend the night with her later. After a much needed bath and a good brushing of her teeth, just cuddling into Hermione while knowing Harry was nearby allowed a knackered Luna to fall into a peaceful sleep.

Heading for the terrace, Harry was already feeling better. They were home and his two girls were safely tucked up in bed. The wonderful view across the bay of Naples also helped, it was hard to maintain your anger when faced with such a twinkling light beauty.

Their villa was high enough up the volcano to afford them the privacy they craved, yet still less than fifteen minutes from Sorrento in Dan's Range Rover. With Dobby and Winky available to pop them into Naples, they really had the best of all worlds here. The time difference between Scotland and Italy had just moved them from late Monday to the early hours of Tuesday morning but it was refreshingly cool outside. With the terrace charmed to keep insects away, this was usually where the family spent most of their time together.

All were patiently waiting on Harry, Amelia had even been provided with a small table and writing materials.

Wanting to set a relaxed tone from the very beginning, Amelia told Harry exactly what she was doing. "I intend to note down only the main points of what happened earlier. I will then let you read it, and ask you to sign that it is a truthful rendition of the facts."

Agreeing with that, Harry began to fill the gaps in their knowledge of what had happened tonight. Knowing from Hermione that everyone pretty much knew the sequence of events in the lead-up to Luna's abduction, Harry then took them through what followed that catastrophe.

Amelia had been present when Hermione ejected Dumbledore from her mind, she had no problems imagining the same thing happening to Voldemort. What the head of the D.M.L.E. struggled to believe was Luna's courage at defying the dark Lord in his own lair.

When Harry got to the matter of Luna's escape, it took Emma sitting with her arm around him before he could bring himself to tell the story. "Killing someone with your wand is a hard thing to do, and so it should be. Grabbing someone by the throat with your jaws and, even although your mouth is filling with their blood, holding on until they're dead is at least a hundred times harder. Luna knew what needed to be done, and Moonlight carried it out. Nott was the same age as us but had already made his choice, that choice didn't leave us any other options but the ones we took. I was so proud of Luna, she showed amazing bravery tonight. She's also worried in case any of her family thinks differently of her now, that was why Hermione shared with her back in Hogwarts. Luna knows exactly what Hermione and I think about her after what happened tonight, we couldn't love her any more than we do."

It was Dan who chose to speak for all of them. "That could so easily have been Hermione who was snatched today, and I felt every bit as bad because it was Luna. Emma and I think of them both as our daughters, that won't change because of whatever Luna was forced to do to survive. We love both our girls, and our son, and are more thankful than we can say that all three are back home with us tonight. We may be a couple of months away from making those relationships official but that's how we already think of you and Luna." Emma holding Harry tighter confirmed she agreed with everything her husband just said.

As the newest member of the family, Claire decided to make her opinion known. "What Luna faced today was horrible, but the way she dealt with it was nothing short of magnificent. I know my husband already loves all three of you, I can't see that changing because of tonight."