"Hurry up, Rolf! I don't want to get there after they've eaten all the pudding!"

Rolf Scamander straightened his robes one last time before rushing down the stairs to join his girlfriend. He had met Luna Lovegood at a Magizoological conference and been absolutely entranced by her. Most of the time those conferences were an absolute bore with everyone wanting to talk to him about his grandfather's work. He often got the feeling that the people he talked to didn't see him, but just his surname.

Luna was...different. She had engaged him in a conversation about creatures he had never heard of. When he asked for more details she had airily told him that she had none to give as the creatures hadn't been discovered yet. It was an attitude that flummoxed and fascinated the young Magizoologist.

That conversation had been the launching point for a whirlwind expedition to find the creatures the almost ephemeral young woman had described. They hadn't found a single one of Luna's creatures but Rolf had rediscovered something that he had forgotten: Magizoology was fun. Luna brought the joy of a possible new discovery to everything she did. It was a completely different experience from the regimented approach his father espoused.

It was also during this expedition that Rolf had first worked up the nerve to ask Luna out on a date. It had taken a week of negotiations with a tribe in the Amazon rainforest to get them to cook a meal for the two Europeans. The relief he felt when Luna agreed to go on a date with him was indescribable.

The date itself had somehow been perfect. Neither of them had brought any fancy clothes along as they would only have been dead weight to haul around. Dressed in shorts and T-shirts the pair shared a meal of barbecued alligator, rice, jungle fruits and fermented pineapple-wine. When he had attended Hogwarts, Rolf had only been on a few dates and none of them had been particularly successful. Much like the conventions he attended, the girls had only wanted to talk about his grandfather's accomplishments; accomplishments Luna seemed singularly unconcerned with.

Rolf's father, Mortimer Scamander, had not been pleased to hear of his son's most recent expedition.

"You mean to tell me that in three months you haven't made a speck of progress towards the goal of the expedition? That is unacceptable. We are Scamanders. Our expeditions do not fail." There had been more in that vein but in the end Rolf couldn't bring himself to view his and Luna's expedition as a failure. In fact he was eager to depart on another as soon as possible.

That was, in a sense, the reason he was hurrying tonight. Luna refused to go on another expedition with him before he met her family. Last week he had met her father. It was clear where Luna had gotten her marvelous taste for exploration from. Rolf and Xeno had spent an evening happily talking about possibilities; about maybe's and might be's. Xeno had also had some excellent if unconventional advice about all aspects of their upcoming expedition.

Tonight it was Luna's brother and his wife that Rolf would be meeting. Luna spoke often of this brother but had never mentioned his name. Still, from what he had heard, Rolf was very aware that the man played a large part in Luna's life and that she was very fond of him. This meant that Rolf was eager to make a good impression.

He reached the floo and Luna looked him over with her usual dreamy stare. Rolf felt like a soldier being examined by a general on the parade ground. After only a moment, though it seemed much longer to Rolf, Luna gave a minute nod and held out the floo powder to him.

"The address is 12 Grimmauld Place. I'll be right behind you." Rolf wondered to himself why Luna felt the need to add that last reassurance as he threw the floo powder into the fire and called out his destination. After the usual dizzying ride through the green flames Rolf stepped out of the grate into what looked like the receiving room of a stately manor house; sort of.

Rolf had been in enough manor houses of the older families to know what a receiving room usually looked like and this was not it. The room he had emerged into was warm and homely. There was no attempt to impress or over-awe a visitor. There were comfy couches bracketing a woven rug on a hardwood floor. Between the couches a glass coffee table stood on the rug and there were bookcases against the walls. Through the window Rolf could see some children playing a late afternoon game of tag in a small park. The whole atmosphere was of a cozy living room despite the high ceiling and wood paneled walls.

"I think I just heard the floo chime, love. That must be them." a woman's voice called from deeper in the house. Moments later a beautiful woman of about Luna's age came through the door. She smiled when she saw him.

"You must be Rolf. Luna's told us so much about you in her letters. It's wonderful to finally meet you." Rolf was about to respond when his eyes were drawn to the man who had just entered behind the woman. Looking back at him from the most famous face in the wizarding world were a pair of ancient green eyes. Rolf's answer died as a gurgle in his throat.

Rolf's mind struggled to comprehend what he was seeing. I'm in the wrong house was his first thought. That didn't make sense though; the woman, Hermione Potter his mind numbly supplied, had mentioned Luna. Somehow Luna's big brother would appear to be Harry Potter. The whole time he had been trying to figure out what was happening those green eyes hadn't stopped watching him. Rolf was strongly reminded of a large predator faced with a tiny prey animal. There was the kind of lazy curiosity he had seen in large cats that hadn't decided yet whether or not it was worth the effort to get up and kill the little snack in front of them.

"Are you alright?" he heard Mrs. Potter ask. He was spared having to force some kind of answer from his throat when he heard a chime behind him as the floo flared. His girlfriend was running past his shoulder and jumped at the Potters with a happy squeal.

"Harry! Hermione!" She was caught up in a happy hug in no time and the joyful, perhaps even loving, looks that were exchanged between the three killed any 'wrong house' theory stone dead. Rolf was going to have to impress Harry-bleeding-Potter if he wanted to take Luna on another expedition. With a whimper he fainted.

"Oh dear." Hermione gasped as she heard a body hit the floor. "Luna, I think your boyfriend fainted." Luna disentangled herself from her friends and looked at the unconscious man on the floor.

"Hmmm, I think you may be right, Hermione." she said in her usual dreamy tone. Harry was shaking his head with a small smile on his face.

"Why do I get the feeling we've been used in a prank? Luna, did he even know what was happening tonight or did you just throw him through the floo?"

"Don't be silly, Harry. Of course Rolf knew what was happening. I told him quite clearly that he would be meeting my big brother today." Luna's smile was just a little too innocent and Harry did still regularly meet up with the Weasley twins.

"And did Rolf know that you were referring to me or did you forget to mention my name?" he asked. Luna's eyes widened, trying to force a little more innocence into her expression.

"I'm not sure. I'll have to ask him when he wakes up." she answered. Harry just chuckled at his little sister's antics. A groan from the floor brought their attention back to the collapsed man in the middle of the room. Luna quickly knelt down next to her boyfriend. When his eyes fluttered open they looked onto the silver ones above him.

"Luna, sweetheart, you wouldn't believe the dream I just had." he told her as he sat up and brought a hand up to his throbbing head. "We were at your brother's and for some reason he was played by Harry Potter."

"Played?" the mock-indignant question from behind him caused Rolf to spin around as fast as one can when sitting on the floor. Standing there looking thoroughly amused were Harry and Hermione Potter. Shit. Not a dream.

"Rolfie, Harry wanted to know if I had told you that he is my big brother but I can't quite remember. Did I?" Luna spoke up.

"No, Luna. You didn't." Rolf said in a trembling voice as he turned back to face Luna.

"Oh. Well, Harry Potter is my big brother. He has been since my third year at Hogwarts." Luna beamed at him before looking over his shoulder. "There, I told him." The chuckles behind Rolf suddenly sounded a lot closer and he felt a pair of hands haul him up by the armpits.

"Like Hermione said: it's good to finally meet you, Rolf. I apologize for Luna's incorrigible behaviour. We just don't know where she gets it from." Harry said while shaking Rolf's hand. The Magizoologist was trying to get over his shock but I'm actually meeting Harry and Hermione Potter kept running through his head. As if summoned by his thoughts, Hermione appeared beside her husband and swatted him on the arm.

"That might have been believable if you could have kept the pride out of your voice." she scolded Harry with a smile.

"What? It was a good prank. You know Sirius is going to need nappies when we tell him."

"Ignore the children for now, Rolf. Would you like something to drink before we sit down to dinner?" Hermione addressed her guest while said 'children' stood sniggering next to them. Rolf managed a nod. As he was led into the kitchen and given a glass of wine he could slowly feel himself starting to calm down a bit.

Over dinner Rolf got to know the Potters and was surprised by just how...ordinary they were. Slowly the surrealism of the situation began to ebb and he honestly enjoyed himself. He still found himself being caught off guard occasionally by how casually they spoke of the greatest members of the wizarding world (he was sure he would never, ever refer to the Minister for Magic as 'Amy') but even those shocks were becoming less and less pronounced. By the end of the night he was even starting to think that he might one day be good friends with the Potters. They even made it home without Harry dragging him off somewhere to ask him about his intentions towards Luna, a prospect that had occurred to him halfway through dinner and nearly made him faint again.

When they got home he told Luna about the relief he had felt. Her answer managed to strip that away in record time.

"Harry has agreed to not intimidate my dates after I asked him not to. He is a little too good at it and I would never be able to get a boy to go out with me if he glowered at them all the time. It would give him wrinkles too and Hermione wouldn't like that. I did have to agree to let him deal with anyone who hurts me as violently as he likes." Rolf was suddenly very aware of his own mortality.

"Rolf, are you planning on hurting me?" Luna asked him sounding suddenly serious.

"Of course not! Luna, I love you." he exclaimed in horror.

"I know and I love you too. You just need to remember that. Harry isn't going to turn your entrails into a vase for no reason. Just relax and love me. In fact, I think you should love me right now." Rolf chuckled and picked her up to carry her to his bed. Maybe he could get a handle on being Harry Potter's brother-in-law. Luna was certainly worth it.

AN: Well, that's it for now. The story will be going on hiatus for a little while as my muse is screaming in my ear and I'm tearing through the work for another story. I think I will add one or two chapters when I'm done with that. There was a request for a look into Ephialtes' problems in the afterlife after his screw-up that feels promising, but right now you're just going to have to put up with this the way it is.

As always: thank you for reading.