Previously in TA: Invited by Rolf Scamander, Harry, Luna and Elia have decided to go on holidays in the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary.

(I'm so sorry for the delay; Venus retrograde is killing me.)

Harry didn't see Elia more than a few minutes at a time in the next few days, busy as she was to hire help. She would come back home at the end of the day, beyond frustrated by her fruitless inquiries, and Luna'd bake galaxy cupcakes to cheer her up. Harry would help with her remaining work as she rested and swore about how lazy people would bring the world to its end.

Harry didn't like witnessing his friend so dispirited and wished he could help her, even if that meant bribing someone to apply for the job.

When he met her on the fourth day's evening though, she had gotten her cheerful mood back. She refused to say anything about the matter, however, and Harry didn't push. She'd tell him eventually. Right?

During those idling days, he visited the last few places he wanted to see in Paris. He rode the bus to Montmartre with Luna to see the church, and they shared a cup of iced tea in a café on the hill after climbing all those stairs. The next day, they stopped off at the Chinese area in the 13th district to buy baozi, mooncakes and eight differents figurines of cats deemed to bring luck or money, which they then set on the mantlepiece in the inn's living room. On his own, Harry also discovered the Parc des Buttes Chaumont, with its temple, waterfalls, lush vegetation and crowd of families, and Shakespeare & Co, the capital's most famous English-speaking bookshop. Intellectually, he knew he wasn't nearly done with the city, but the prospect of leaving soon for another country was quite distracting, and besides, he was content with the sightseeing he'd done.

He purchased for Luna a guidebook about Romania, and they read it together in the evenings when Elia was still too busy to join them. Unsurprisingly, Luna wasn't overly concerned with practical matters such as transport and accommodation, and would rather talk at length about the dragons and Romania's distinct Statute of secrecy.

The sixth day after Rolf's letter, as the first week of September reached its end, Harry, Elia and Luna met for lunch in the back garden. The stuffing heat of the summer was gone, and it was now pleasantly warm, even at midday. Elia had only woken up minutes before and was slowly coming to her senses with the aid of her beloved coffee. Luna was singing about Elia eyes colour or perhaps the butterflies and Harry was distractedly listening to her and musing how he'd never had a kebab before. (He didn't tell Elia that, though. She didn't need any more reason to mock him until the end of times.)

The office's door opened abruptly, and Céleste's suspicious face emerged from the threshold.

"Eliana Louise Charles," she summoned.

Her daughter automatically straightened up.

"What did I do?"

The implied "again" didn't go unnoticed. Céleste stared at her without saying anything.

"You know what you did. Come on now, there's someone asking for you."

Elia seemed to ponder the thought, and then her face brightened.

"I should have known you'd resort to that." Céleste rolled her eyes, but somehow her gaze was affectionate. "Go on, don't make him wait."

Elia put her coffee cup down, kissed Luna on the top of her head and told Harry she would be back in a moment, then followed her mother into the office. Though Harry didn't have the slightest clue about the situation, Elia had looked pleased about the news, so that was that. He kept eating his fries and grilled meat while Luna stole the rest of Elia's coffee instead of eating hers.

When Elia came back to the table, she was beaming. Following her was a wiry man wearing khakis paired with a black Sex Pistols t-shirt, his skin a shade darker than Elia's. He had a couple of rings in his left ear, intricate tattoos on his arms, a goatee and messy dark brown hair.

"Hola Luna," he said. "So good to see you again, hermosa mía."

He had an accent Harry couldn't quite place.

"Dan! Elia wouldn't tell me you were coming."

Luna looked elated.

"Yeah, well, that one loves giving everyone a surprise, doesn't she?"

He ruffled Elia's hair, and that's the exact moment Harry pinpointed who he was, even though it had been quite evident from the start, what with how alike he and Elia were.

"Harry, meet Dan, my father. Don't call him Daniel, he hates it, and only my mother does that."

It felt great to have guessed before the revelation and Harry shook the man's hand with a friendly smile.

"Dan, this is Harry. He and Luna went to Hogwarts together, and now he's travelling around."

"A man after my own heart," Dan acknowledged. "Pleasure to meet you at last, Harry. Elia's told me all about you in her letters."

Elia playfully shoved her father's shoulder.

"Don't listen to him, Harry. He's just suspicious because I told him he wasn't the only man in my life anymore."

Under the light tone, Harry could tell she was sincere, and he felt a wave of warmth invade his chest. Elia took her seat back, and Dan circled the table to sit next to Harry. Luna poured two cups of coffee and handed them over.

"Muchas gracias," Dan thanked her and almost scalded his tongue in his hurry to drink. Apparently, the taste for caffeine was running into the family. Satisfied, Luna ultimately started eating after casting a warming spell on her plate.

"So this is your solution?" Harry asked Elia after a moment of silence.

"Honestly, I can't for the life of me understand why I didn't consider it earlier. Dan's lived here for years, he knows the job, even if it was a long, long time ago."

"¡Ay! Now I feel like an old man," Dan said, stealing a fry from Luna's plate.

"You are," Elia deadpanned. "Back to the matter; Dan's already worked with my mother, so it won't be a deal-breaker. Part of why I couldn't hire anybody is because no one wants to work for her," She added to Harry.

"Be nice to your mama, querida," Dan required, not unkindly. "She's better than any of us."

Elia rolled her eyes, perfectly impersonating a moody teenager.

"Ugh, it's exhausting to have two parents. I can't wait to leave and get rid of you again."

Daniel shook his head good-humoredly, and Harry himself couldn't help but grin, savouring the fact that Elia didn't pity him or apologise for saying those kinds of things. He liked her caution on sensitive matters, and her charming way of crushing boundaries.

"Seriously though," Dan said, pouring himself another cup of coffee. "How long do you need me to stay?"

"A week, give or take?"

"Should be fine," he nodded. "I told Estefanía I wouldn't be back until the fourteenth anyway."

"Thanks, I owe you one. Wait, are you seriously going back to Mérida?"

"She wants us four to be there this year. Even Miguel is flying back from his farm in Australia. I don't know what she told him."

"What did she threaten you with?" Elia countered.

Dan laughed.

"Nothing, querida. She reckons it's about time we make amends, and I agree."

Elia didn't seem convinced, but she eventually nodded.

"Right. We'll definitely talk about this later. In the meantime, tell us how India was."

Dan didn't need to be asked twice and recounted his recent four-month-long trip in India, and how he had all but fled the scorching heat of Delhi in May to settle in the Tamil Nadu countryside, in the southernmost part of the country. But there, no one seemed to understand his heavily accented English, despite it being one of the official languages, and he had rented a flat with a wizard from Spain so he'd have someone to talk to while he learnt enough Tamil to chat with the locals. He had been pondering about staying for a while longer when Elia had asked for his help.

Dan was an exceptional storyteller, and the three friends were hanging onto his every word. Harry found it easy to relate to him, even if he had only been a traveller for a month. Like Dan in India, Harry had made new friends, learnt a new language and discovered himself far away from home. Meeting Elia had shifted his understanding of friendship and life in general, but that didn't mean he had forgotten about Ron and Hermione and everyone who mattered. Romania would for sure be different, as he wasn't going in alone.

Later that afternoon, Dan left to run errands and the others scattered. Harry packed his bag and cleaned his room up, knowing they'd be going in a matter of days, which is when he remembered that they still hadn't picked a transport. Thankfully, at dinner that night, which they all ate with Marthe in the dining-room downstairs, Dan surprised them with three one way tickets for a Portkey leaving the next day. He had invoked a decade-old favour to a friend at the Ministry, and it made Harry wonder about said-favour, given how difficult Elia's mentioned it could be to book an international Portkey. Dan added that it was a late birthday gift for Elia, and Harry thus learnt that she was born in May.

He learnt many other things that night, about each member of the family and even about Luna. It was clear the five of them belonged together, despite living in different countries. Unlike her daughter and grand-daughter, Marthe could speak Spanish, to Dan's undeniable delight. He Céleste didn't exchange many words, but would often brush hands or trade tender looks. (And though Harry wasn't a romantic, that was moving.) Luna and Dan had a heated discussion that no one dared to interrupt, about mudrā and asana, whatever those things were.

Harry also learnt that before leaving his homeland at the age of twenty-two, Dan had been the youngest sibling of four, born and raised in Mérida, Mexico. He had estranged his family partly because he wanted to travel the world, and because the aftermath of his father's loss had been brutal - and not merely due to the grief. The two eldest, Estefanía and Miguel, and their mother had fought over the inheritance's clause. The two youngest, Daniel and Antonio, had refrained from taking sides, leading to years and years of fights and resentment.

Now, almost thirty years later, their mother had also passed away, and as the new head of the family, Estefanía was trying to mend things with her three brothers. Harry could get why Elia had been sceptical, hearing that Dan was willing to go back all of a sudden.

They kept talking until late into the night, polishing a bottle of Marthe's legendary eau de vie, and Harry was soon to tipsy to feel more than perfectly comfortable with them.

[…]

They left the next day, a moody Monday, with mixed feelings. They said their goodbyes to Céleste, Daniel and Marthe in the afternoon, sheltered from the heavy rain in the inn's living room.

"Enjoy your trip, honey," Céleste said to her daughter. "And stay safe."

"Harry'll make sure of that, I believe," Dan added and winked at Harry.

The irony wasn't lost on him. Though he hadn't the best track record with staying safe over the years, he would do his utmost to keep Elia and Luna from harm.

"Of course I will," he vowed and narrowly dodged the elbow Elia tried to kick him with for the sake of it. She was wearing her dad's Sex Pistols t-shirt, and it was hanging off her less muscular frame. (And as she wanted them to be matching, Harry had picked the Beatles and Luna David Bowie in her extensive t-shirts collection.)

"Time to go. It would be too bad to miss the Portkey." Elia reminded.

She took Luna's free hand in hers, the other one holding the peculiar suitcase. Harry made sure he had his backpack and his wand. He had sent Aderyn to go to Romania by her own means and shrunk her cage to carry it safely.

Leaving was bittersweet, but by the time they left the Alley, the excitement had gotten the upper hand again. Rather than Apparate, they chose to take the subway. After a short ride, they got off at the Palais Royal station and made their way to the Ministry of Magic.

They had to wait for an additional thirty minutes at the International Portkey desk once their tickets were checked and their bags shrunk in their pockets to avoid losing them on the way. Then a clerk led them, alongside seven other passengers, to a nondescript room where an abnormally-sized umbrella was waiting for them. On the count of five, everyone grabbed the Portkey, some with more dread than others.

Ten long minutes later, they landed seven-hundred kilometres east of Paris, in München, Germany. Harry padded around the room, relieved to feel the floor beneath his feet, and noticed that Elia herself looked a bit sick.

"It's awful," she stated. "I officially hate Portkeys. We should have taken the plane."

One of their fellow travellers, a lean witch with a bright purple pointed hat, mumbled something rude about the damned Muggles and Luna made her stumble on her laces as she exited the room. She had endured the trip well, without doubt, if she was still able to avenge her girlfriend.

They found out they had an hour to spare before their next shuttle and when Elia heard a German clerk mentioning a decent coffee shop inside the Ministry, they had to got and get it. There, they got more than what they bargained for as a twenty-something wizard named Gabi enlightened them about the requirement for stopovers when boarding a long-distance Portkey. When he wasn't making fancy drinks for travellers and Ministry officials, Gabi was studying magical transportation. He was delighted to hear Elia's tale about her first time on a plane since, unlike France, wizarding Germany wasn't too keen on adopting non-magical ideas. Harry and Luna virtually had to tear Elia away from the conversation so they wouldn't miss their shuttle, and she barely had the time to give Gabi her address so they could write to each other.

Three other umbrellas brought them to Zagreb, Croatia, to Timișoara, at the Serbian and Romanian Border, and at last, to Bucharest, their final destination.

When they exited the station, Gara de Nord, at eleven, local time, they were all exhausted and ready to call it a night. Harry swore he wouldn't ever dare to take four bloody Portkey on the same afternoon. He couldn't help but feel like a fish out of the water as only Luna knew what Rolf looked like, and she was presently trying to soothe a very grumpy Niffler in the suitcase. They made it to a bench on the square, and less than five minutes later, Elia was dozing, her head on Harry's shoulder. Despite his own tiredness, Harry knew better than to copy her, and he kept watch, as he had always done, and as he had promised Elia's parents.

A while later, he noticed someone their age coming closer with a determined stride. He had dark skin, short curly hair and a friendly smile.

"Luna!" He greeted once he was close enough.

Luna instantly handed her suitcase over to Harry and threw herself in the newcomer's arms.

"Hi," he then said. "Harry, right?"

"That's me. Nice to meet you."

Feeling Harry moving, Elia opened her eyes and blinked, as if she hadn't heard Rolf yet.

"Oh, hi," she mumbled with a sleepy smile.

"Hi. So, not that I'm not pleased to meet you guys, but we should really get going. The Floo network was crowded on the way over, and it's like super late already."

It wasn't a real excuse for his tardiness, but that was better than nothing, Harry thought as Rolf led them all back to the station.

"We can't access the village through Muggle means," he explained as they stopped in front of a large and obviously magical chimney. "The place's called Creastamică," he added, waiting impatiently for Luna to grab some Floo powder and throw it into the earth. She disappeared into the bright green flames, cradling her suitcase against her chest. Elia, barely standing upright, was next, and then Harry submitted himself to the magical transportation.

Before his knees could hit the stone floor, Harry briefly wondered if he hated Portkeys or Floo more. Thankfully, Elia and Luna were both too tired to mock him for his clumsiness. They had landed in a barely-lit room, empty save for the chimney. Rolf stepped out of it mere seconds later, looking as if he could do this all day. (Harry wasn't jealous in the slightest.)

"Everyone's here, awesome." He said jauntily. "You'd better cast a heat charm before leaving if you don't want to freeze your ass off."

Harry did as he was told and felt the warmth invade his body as if stepping into a hot bath. With this pleasant feeling came a wave of pure exhaustion, and he was relieved to be ushered outside.

Rolf showed the way and lit a flame in a rudimentary-looking lantern. Though Harry couldn't help but reflect that Hermione's were better, this light still allowed them to see the uneven road under their feet. Harry breathed in and felt the crisp mountain air invade his lungs.

Their walk was thankfully very brief, and in no time, they were standing in front of a two-storey cabin.

"Here we are," Rolf said. He extinguished the lantern and put it against the wall then pushed the door open and went inside, followed by the others.

With its plain wooden walls, exposed beams and charcoal-coloured stone flooring, the room could have looked auster if it wasn't for the red and blue woven rug and the pair of comfortable looking armchairs in front of an empty wood-burner.

"There are only two rooms upstairs so I'll share one with my father and you can have the other," Rolf told Elia and Luna. "And you can have the recliners," he added for Harry. "They're pretty comfortable."

Despite his growing unease at having to sleep in an open space, Harry was also unwilling to bother this young man he'd just met, and he eventually nodded.

Elia and Luna wished them both a good night and ventured upstairs. Rolf then seemed to notice the mess of books and stationery littering one of the armchairs and sighed.

"My father always complains he can't find his researches, but then..."

Harry had to admit, he was rather impatient to meet the man, after everything he had heard on his behalf.

Rolf Accio'ed a pair of heavy blankets and set them on the free recliner.

"I'll let you get settled now. Kitchen and bathroom are upstairs. Good night."

"Good night," Harry answered, but Rolf was already climbing the stairs.

Harry wished he had the strength to make it to the bathroom, but for once, the prospect of lying down was simply too appealing. Brushing his teeth would have to wait until he'd at least slept for a few hours.

He took off his shoes and his glasses, cast a warning spell around himself out of habit, and turned the armchair so he would both see the staircase and the front door. He laid with his clothes still on and buried himself under the blankets that curiously smelled of summer.

He was asleep in minutes.

[…]

Harry woke up every few hours throughout the night. He went upstairs to drink a glass of ice-cold water around two, used the loo an hour later, and even took a walk outside shortly before sunrise. He was feeling both restless and exhausted at the same time, a combination he knew from experience wouldn't do any good for his lingering paranoia.

By the time nine o'clock rolled around, he decided he could get on with the day. The house was quiet, so Elia must still be asleep.

He folded the blankets on the recliner and headed for the bathroom. The setting up was rudimentary, with a tap and a basin instead of a shower stall, but Harry found he didn't mind, as long as there was hot water. He felt better after that, his senses sharpened, and his anxiety quieted. He dried his hair and put on clean clothes.

Elia was waiting in the hallway when he came out, looking rumpled in a grey Iron Maiden t-shirt and deep green pyjama bottoms.

"Oh, hi," he said. "You awake yet? Thought you'd sleep around the clock."

"Haha, very funny," she rolled her eyes. "For your information, you also looked like shit last night."

Harry smiled genuinely. Their familiar banter soothed the sharp edges of the unfamiliar environment.

"Sleep well?" He asked at last.

"Like a log. What about you?"

"I've known better," he said truthfully.

"People born in Leo doesn't cope well with a change of routine," Luna chirped in. She was already clothed for the day, her hair cascading on her shoulders.

"Do you know what that means?" Elia asked Harry quizzically.

"No idea."

"That's what I thought."

Elia then went to take a shower, and Harry and Luna to the kitchen, where they were before long joined by Rolf. Together, they managed to fix a decent breakfast composed of flatbread, plain yoghurt, grapes and strong English tea.

"Where's your father?" Harry asked Rolf.

"He left at dawn," Luna answered.

"He tends to do that," Rolf added before helping himself to another piece of bread. "So, how was Paris, Lu? Did you see any Glumbumble?"

Harry switched off after five minutes. Thankfully, Elia joined them shortly after that and changed the topic to more pressing matters.

"So, what are the plans for today?" She asked after pouring herself a cup of tea.

"Seeing the dragons, of course," Luna stated.

"About that," Rolf countered. "The nursery won't accept more than a few visitors at a time, and my father's already up there, so we'll have to go separately."

"You can go first with Rolf, Mooncalf," Elia said. "Harry and I will wait."

"Thank you," Luna answered, suddenly bursting with excitement.

"If only you'd be as impatient to spend time with me as you're to see dragons," Rolf sighed.

"Aren't we all," Elia deadpanned.

Luna only threw a confused glance between the two.

Watching the scene, Harry suddenly understood why Rolf was throwing him off-balance. He looked at Luna the exact same way Elia did. Either Elia didn't know, or she wasn't the jealous type; Harry really couldn't tell. At any rate, it made sense, how Rolf talked to Luna, if he was in love with her.

"By the way, my mother sent us an owl yesterday. Our Portkey is on the eleventh."

"But we just came here! And Elia finally got holidays!" Luna argued.

"You know Tina, Lu. She'll come and get us if we're not home the day after tomorrow."

"Could I join you later? We were planning on staying for a few more days."

"The three of you? How will you manage on your own?"

Harry felt attacked on Luna's behalf, even though technically, Rolf wasn't wrong. She was the only one who knew the village, but she wouldn't tell them anything she deemed useless.

"Don't worry, Rolfie," she soothed. "Harry has a friend here."

Everyone looked surprised, and Harry first, though he ought not to be caught unaware by Luna's knowledge anymore.

"Really? Who's that?" Rolf pressed curiously.

"Charlie Weasley," Harry revealed. "But we're not friends; actually, he's my best friend brother, so we know each other, just not that well." He felt compelled to add, feeling Elia's sudden attention on him.

"Well, Charlie seems like a nice guy, and he'll surely show you around. But Luna doesn't know how to assess risks, so I'm counting on you," he stated, his tone almost stern.

"Oi, I'm here, too," Elia reminded, and Rolf threw a side-glance in her direction.

"True; Harry could make a diversion, and you could grab Luna and run if you're in trouble."

"Is running a good idea, though?" Elia added, and at the same time, Harry argued: "I don't want to end up as dragons' food again."

Rolf's gaze on him shifted.

"Blimey, I didn't realise. You're Harry from the Hungarian Horntail story? In that case, I reckon you'll be able to keep her safe."

Rolf being overprotective with Luna supported Harry's theory regarding his romantic feelings, though Rolf had plausibly never seen her duel if he assumed she was defenceless.

Memories from the Battle of Hogwarts came to Harry's mind, and he banished them immediately. Now was still not the time to think about the past.

Thankfully, Luna seemingly got bored with the conversation and started cleaning up the breakfast table with swift yet graceful moves of her wand.

"We'd better get going," Rolf said when the dishes began to wash themselves in the sink. "So you both will still have time this afternoon."

Harry noticed that Elia wasn't delighted at being separated from her girlfriend, even though she had been the one to decide on that allocation.

"What is there to do in the meantime?" She asked, instead.

"Pretty much everyone is working in the Sanctuary during the day, but you can wander around. The village is okay, but you should totally check the landscape out."

He stretched his arms above his head.

"No one closes the houses, so you won't have to worry about that. Just don't get too far in case the weather worsens suddenly."

It occurred to Harry that he had absolutely no idea about their current location, only that the village was apparently called Creastamică, a name he had never heard before.

Rolf and Luna left at last, and Elia looked dejected.

"Up for a walk?" She asked as if she'd rather do anything but that.

Harry could understand; their first day wasn't looking nearly as exciting as she would have hoped.

"Yeah, let's go," he agreed.

"Why didn't you tell me you knew someone here?" She asked as they left the kitchen.

"As I said, we've met each other like twice. Who knows, he might not even recognise me."

Elia shook her head.

"Only a fool wouldn't recognise you," she stated, and Harry didn't know if that was a good thing. "That's something to do, at the very least; finding your mystery man."

"Rolf said everyone was working at the moment," Harry objected. "And you won't make fun of me in front of him, will you?"

"I wouldn't dare. I just want to check if he'd be good for you."

Harry assumed he had better keep a low profile so that she would hopefully forget about this whole marry-off-Harry nonsense.

A sharp knock on the living-room window saved him. Harry opened the latch, and Aderyn flew into the room, then landed on the nearest armchair, the one covered with Rolf's father's stuff.

Elia stroke her back feathers softly and Harry rummaged through his bag to retrieve a treat.

"She doesn't seem to have suffered from the trip," Elia noted. "Quite the opposite, actually."

"I've always found it uncanny, the fact that magical owls can cover such long distances only to deliver the mail."

To this day, it was still one of the few mysteries about the wizarding world that he hadn't solved - that, and the ridiculous regulation against muggle pens at Hogwarts.

"We're going on a walk, Aderyn. See you soon."

She ruffled her feathers and flew to perch on a ceiling beam, then looked at the pair of humans from above.

"Guess she's okay with that."

"Got everything you need?" Harry asked before they could venture outside. Elia briefly checked her outfit and shook her head.

"Wait. Accio Luna's knitted jumper."

She caught her girlfriend's piece of clothing in the air and put it on.

"All right," she said. "Time to go on an adventure."

Now that the sun had risen, Harry could discover his surroundings. The house was on the side of the mountain, and the dirt and stone path through which they had arrived last night slithered downstream between many other similarly looking cabins, which had to be the village as mentioned earlier. It was surrounded by peaks of various heights, and Harry could also see green fields, tiny houses and a river in the valley below. It looked a bit like the Scottish countryside, to be perfectly honest, even if it didn't quite feel like it. Overall, it was relaxing and very, very quiet.

"Wow," Elia said, a foot behind him. "It's amazing."

Harry merely nodded, and they started walking downstream, toward the centre of the village, discovering a row of sturdy cabins, some of them with a logo on the door. They drank ice-cold, pure water at a mountain spring and turned around when it became evident that they'd had seen everything there was to see. In the daytime, the place looked like a ghost town, and Harry wondered how it was like in the evening, full of its inhabitants.

They came back to their cabin to find a message magically pinned on the heavy wooden door.

"Harry" was written on it in capital letters.

He unfolded the piece of parchment and read it before passing it over to Elia, who was doing a poor job at covering her excitement.

"Dear Harry,

Welcome to Creastamică, the most fabulous place on earth (in all objectivity). I didn't expect you to be the first member of my extended family to come here, but I'm glad you did.

If you wish, I could take a break from work today and show you around. Ask Rolf to tell you about the path to the shelter, and I'll meet you there.

See you,

Charlie"

"Seems like a decent guy," Elia approved. "But are you sure you're not friends?"

"He's probably friendly with everyone," Harry objected, trying to hide how he was relieved to be the recipient of such a kind message.

"We'll see," Elia said because she couldn't help but have the final word.

(I don't speak Spanish and I've never been to either India, Mexico or Romania. All mistakes are my own. Also, Creastamică isn't a real place, but you can Google Piatra Craiului to give you ideas)

Thank you so much! See you on June, the 14th.