[October Oneshot exchange: Written for acrownlessqueen, hiraeth (word); "You without youth" - Metric (song); Harry/Luna/Ginny] [DADA class Assignment Impediment Jinx and Full Body-Bind; Task: Write about relying on one of the five senses when another one is missing. This can be permanently or temporary; Prompt: (word) ice; (dialogue) "Slow down." / "Why should I?"]

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Burning Down Privet Drive, or

Be a Freak Like Me

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[Harry/Luna] [Song: Lana Del Rey - Freak]

[Hiraeth (n.) "a nostalgia for a home to which you cannot return; a longing for a home that is no longer or never was"]

I.

Today was his birthday. His 21st birthday.

He awoke near dawn, half-dressed, half-naked with Luna's warm body wrapped around his own. It was a quiet, tranquil moment and Harry closed his eyes to contemplate the fact that he was 21 today before closing his eyes again and drifting back off to sleep.

It was a few more hours before he officially woke up and Luna was doing all kinds of things to tease and awaken him—like dragging her nails slowly down his back, licking his ear, and placing little kisses across his chest—until finally he rolled over on top of her and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Fine, you win. I'm awake," he whispered with a tired groan as he gazed down at her. Luna never seemed to get tired no matter how little or much sleep she had. Harry always had to keep up with her stamina. He sighed with a little content smile before he started placing rough kisses down her throat and chest in retaliation. Luna giggled as his stubble scratched against her pale, porcelain soft skin.

After they had spent a good half an hour, taking care of his first birthday present, Luna nibbled at his ear and told him she had a second birthday present.

Now I wonder what that could be, Harry thought satisfactorily as he got dressed into casually elegant black robes and a crisp white shirt.

Luna dressed in a simple green dress, embelished with sequins, before telling him to meet her in the living room.

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"Close your eyes," Luna said into Harry's ear. His skin tingled where her cool breath briefly touched his neck.

Harry, perhaps 6 months ago, would be apprehensive about closing his eyes whenever Luna asked, but since he'd been dating her, he'd learned to subtly trust her. And more often than not, she surprised him with her quirky personality—to the point where he enjoyed her eccentricity.

Harry closed his green eyes and nodded. Trusting her.

"I'm listening," he whispered back to her as if they were both anticipating a surprise that they had to be very quiet about.

"Good." He could practically hear her smirk in her wispy, Irish voice. "Now come over here," she instructed and Luna inserted her hand into his. His fingers interlaced with her much smaller fingers and she led him upwards from their shared, messy bed (with its homemade Nargle-wool quilt knitted by Luna herself) and down the hall.

When Harry felt the bare brick of their fireplace hearth under his feet, he grew—slightly—apprehensive.

"Luna, are you going to take me by Floo somewhere?" he asked, trying not to sound too worried, as, with his eyes still closed, he pushed up his glasses from the bridge of his nose. A nervous tic of his.

Luna—he imagined, because he knew his girlfriend's facial expressions (and which voice went with which smile or smirk or twirl of her hair)—smirked and tugged at his hand tighter. "Don't worry, I won't take you anywhere you don't want to go, Harry Potter," she still said his full name on occasions like this, as if they were strangers that just met, and not boyfriend-girlfriend of six months.

"Yes, well," he coughed uncomfortable, "Harry Potter," he referred to himself (and his legendary name) in third person, "is a bit—er tad—bit worried where you might take him." He coughed again and did his best not to open his eyes and call this whole birthday surprise thing off. "Last time, as I recall, you took us to a place in Denmark where they only sold fish and everything was covered in ice."

"That was so we could see the soulskin-sealskin," Luna informed him dreamily.

"Yes," Harry said. "Except when you fell through the hole in the ice, I had to go in and rescue you. I don't like cold water." He had to do it once to get the sword from an ice-cold lake; doing it again in a Danish lake wasn't much more fun the second time around.

Luna giggled. "It was sweet of you."

Harry sighed (and he was half-way crossed between a grin and an annoyed frown). "Yes, well, I couldn't very well let you drown, could I?" he asked ironically. Luna could be rather ditsy at times like these.

But then he felt her small, nimble fingers tracing some invisible scripture onto his cheek and he shivered, remembering why he loved this witch so much; she could drive him wild with her touch. She rubbed her nose against his sweater, as if inhaling a piece of him.

"Let's go, Harry," she said simply and tugged at his hands.

He felt his feet move a bit closer to the dusty ash of the fireplace, any moment now he knew Luna was going to throw a handful of the Floo powder in and take him—still blinded—wherever she was taking him.

"Do I really need to have my eyes closed for this?" he asked with a tired gasp. "I'll hear what you say when you throw the Floo powder in."

Luna kissed him on the cheek. "Then cover your ears too."

Harry took a long exhale of breath, trying to remember when and where Luna got the idea that he liked birthday surprises, before he complied and raised both hands to cover his ears.

A moment later, Luna grabbed him by the wrist and then he could feel her momentum as she threw a handful of Floo powder into their fireplace, whispered into the hearth something he could not hear, and then dragged him forward into the fireplace's cold flames.

He really hoped she didn't take him to Iceland or Denmark again.

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a/n - thank you for reading, I'm trying to put light hints of Dursley abuse in Harry's past without spelling it out or making it overdramatic by showing scars or anything from the Dursleys. I don't think abuse has to leave physical scars and the Dursleys seemed to be emotionally abusive than physically, though Harry probably got both emotional and physical abuse too, that in addition to how the Dursleys practically starved him and damaged him in so many way...But Harry was a fighter :-). Anyways, sorry to sound too heavy and ansgsty in this author's ntoe but the story will get lighter and a bit hilarious and naughty by the end...because I want Harry to be happy :) thanks and reviews appreciated like galleons ;)