Seeing Luna Again

Jake exited the bath feeling much better. "You know, you all didn't have to go into the bathroom with me," Jake said with a blushing sigh.

"Of course, we had to be in there with you, Young Master. It is our duty to do so after all," a maid replied to him from within the bathroom. Yes, a genuine maid. Jake had not one, not two, but three maids go into the bathroom with him to help him wash and ensure he was properly presentable as a member of the noble house of Gremory. It was quite a new experience for him…

As they were speaking of the "Noble House of Gremory," Jake had actually asked the maids about where his father was supposed to be. He had obviously noticed his absence earlier when he and Sairaorg arrived. The three maids just simultaneously grimaced at Jake's question before telling him that it was not their place to answer such a question and told him to ask his family. No matter how much he tried to pry after that, they just continued to give him the same answer.

Once he was finished cleaning off the caked over dirt and blood from his battle, the maids had helped him dry off and had him dressed in genuine clothes. He was incredibly thankful for that. Jake had been wearing nothing but Hogwarts robes for the past six months, and frankly to him, he had never "grown into liking them" as the Hogwarts students had assured him he would whenever he complained about how uncomfortable robes were. Now Jake was dressed in a well-fitting black and red shirt-vest combo with some tailor-made long black pants.

The three maids, finished with dressing their new young master, and, once finished, left the bathroom ahead of him. Jake spent another minute admiring his new clearly custom-tailored threads before heading out the door himself, wondering what he would do now.

"Hi Jake," a dreamy voice greeted him as he emerged from the bathroom door. There, sitting on his bed and gently petting a snoozing Blaze, was Luna! But this wasn't the young teenage Luna Jake had grown accustomed to. No, this was an absolutely beautiful young woman! Jake realized she'd be in her 30's now, but she didn't look a day over 20 herself. She was the same as Serafall in that regard, as her age was apparently locked in time unless she ever chose to make herself look older. Jake found himself freezing at the sight of her for how breathtaking she had grown to become. 'And her smile…' He thought to himself. It could truly be considered "dreamy" now because it had almost put him in a trance just from seeing it.

He snapped himself out of his staring at her when he remembered everything he'd just been through. Jake didn't know how to feel about seeing Luna so soon, to be honest. Did she know what would happen to him? Her contract with 5 year old Sairaorg was proof that she knew something bad would happen to him. Why didn't she warn him though!?

"Oh, Jake, I'm so sorry," Luna spoke up to him upon seeing his conflicted expression. She hated seeing that look on his face especially! As she sat up and walked towards him, she knew this conversation was still going to be a bit painful despite her preparing for it a long time coming.

"Did you know what was going to happen to me in the third task, Luna!?" Jake said accusingly, with a bit of hurt in his voice. He'd never been mad at her before. They'd never had so much as an argument back at Hogwarts. This was a first for both of them. Luna was slightly taken aback by his tone.

She took a moment to collect herself because of that. "Yes," she replied, shocking Jake. "Yes, I knew you would vanish back to your original time at the end of the third trial," she admitted.

"Why?" Jake asked. "Why not tell me?"

Luna explained, "After you left, I returned to Hogwarts, and things, for the most part, returned to normal. Well, as normal as myself being a devil could be. Once I graduated, I moved to the Underworld, where I'd stayed with the Gremory family ever since." Jake nodded along to her explanation, hoping she would justify herself so he'd stop feeling so betrayed.

Luna continued, "Your brother Sirzechs introduced me to Ajuka, another of the Maou, and together we studied my ability to glimpse into the future. From there, we discovered something, a strange phenomenon. Some might call it fate or destiny…but it's name isn't important. What we found through is that there are certain points in time that are VERY difficult to change. It's not impossible, but fate will fight back if you try to go against it…" She said ominously and with a hint of warning. "Only beings who are truly powerful would even dare to go against it and hope to come out unscathed."

Jake regarded her explanation with some confusion. "And so what?" He asked. "You discovered this years later. So what stopped you from telling me before when you were younger?"

Luna just sighed sadly. "It's because I was scared!" She admitted with some tears forming in her eyes. "Anytime I thought about telling you, I would be flooded with visions of terrible futures befalling either you or me! At the time, my only option was to not tell you and let time run its course," she said sadly, with her head down. She started crying. She was so happy that Jake was finally back! And she was also so sad that she couldn't say anything to him all those years ago!

Jake didn't want to see Luna crying like this... She was his best friend, his first peerage member! He took a couple steps forward and wrapped her in a hug. He'd been part of a lot of hugs today, he laughed to himself slightly. "It's okay," Jake said sincerely. "I forgive you. I now understand there was nothing you could do."

"Thank you…"

--------

After a few more minutes of her sniffling into his shoulder, she finally stopped crying.

"So, I'm assuming Serafall also knew," Jake asked. He had recalled that she was also acting pretty weird before he went into the maze.

Luna just nodded and told Jake that she indeed had been confiding her visions in Serafall for a while. It was apparently under Serafall's advice that she finally chose to not inform Jake of his "inevitable fate."

'At least that was one mystery solved,' he thought to himself. But there still was one regret he needed an answer to.

Jake let out a small sigh. "There was something else I've been meaning to ask." Luna just nodded and told him she'd tell him anything now. "What happened with Fleur… with her body, you know." He'd basically vanished from the graveyard in desperation and just left her there…

"She's alive," Luna said to Jake's shocked face.

"What!?" Jake exclaimed. "But how!? I saw her die!"

"Yes, you did," Luna replied sadly. "But once you, Voldemort, and the former Lord Bael had disappeared from that graveyard, the barrier they'd set up to hide vanished as well. Sensing all the massive remnants of magic left over from your fight, Serafall was able to lock onto the location and teleported herself there. The only thing she'd found though were remnants of your battle along with Fleur's body. Serafall is known for not having a peerage, but she was kind enough to revive Fleur as a pawn. A little over a decade later Fleur actually ended up being transferred to Serafall's little sister's peerage. She now works as a French teacher at the school little Sona attends."

Jake let out a sigh of relief. He knew it wasn't his fault, but that didn't stop him from feeling guilty about her dying in front of him in the first place. "Is she happy?" Jake asked.

Luna just nodded while smiling. "Indeed, she enjoys teaching very much apparently. And…" Luna leaned in towards Jake and whispered into his ear, "she's still looking forward to your date. She's been waiting all this time, you know." Luna giggled.

"What!?" Jake said, astonished. "You mean she's been waiting for me for 20 years!" That was…definitely something he didn't expect. He figured she would have moved on with her life.

Luna just smiled dreamily at Jake. "Of course she waited, Jake, after all, you're worth it." Luna, who was still leaning in close to him, did something that shocked Jake. She kissed him on the cheek! "And she's not the only one who's been waiting all this time." Luna laughed, at his shocked look, before she turned around and sashayed out of his bedroom. Her hips swaying in a way that Jake couldn't help but stare.

"Wow…" Jake spoke to himself as he watched her go. "She's definitely changed a bit over these years. She's a lot bolder now…and hotter." He also had to give her props for that dramatic and sultry exit. Jake wondered jokingly if she'd secretly practiced that for the day he'd return.

"..."

…Little did he know that Luna had in fact practiced that dramatic exit…many times.

—--------

Knock Knock

A bit later, Jake's new sister Rias popped her head into his new room after knocking. "Jake, good, you're done bathing," she said as she came into the room, not waiting for an invitation. Rias looked him up and down. "You've cleaned up well," she said. As expected of her new adorable little brother!

"Hi Rias," Jake said, "did you need something?"

"Yes," she said with an enthusiastic nod. "I want you to meet my peerage!" She exclaimed cheerfully. "You already sort-of met my queen Akeno, but now you have to meet everyone else!"

Jake figured he had nothing else to do and he'd like to get to know his sister's peerage. Maybe it would give him some ideas for his own future members.

He followed her down the incredibly long Gremory mansion twisting hallways for over 5 minutes as they headed towards her wing. Yes, her wing. Instead of having her own bedroom, she had her own entire section of the mansion where apparently she and her peerage all had their own rooms! Jake also apparently had the same, except it was just him and Luna staying there currently.

"…And this is MY bedroom," Rias said dramatically as they finally reached her door and she threw it open! She charged right in excitedly, and Jake followed behind her. "I'm back everyone, and I've brought my adorable little brother who's been missing for a while!" She exclaimed to the people in the room.

Jake looked around the room and was pretty shocked. "Rias…the first step is admitting you have a problem," He stated plainly. Her peerage members giggled at his comment while Rias herself just pouted at him.

"It's not that bad…" she trailed off.

Yes, it was that bad. Absolutely every spec of wall space in the entire room was covered in an anime poster of some kind…and it was a big bedroom. Jake figured this single room was bigger than most people's houses…What's more, scattered variously throughout the room laying upon tables and floors was anime paraphernalia of all kinds. Games, figurines, cosplay outfits…they were scattered everywhere. The place was a complete mess…

"Ara, he's got you there, Rias." Jake recognized his sister's queen Akeno speaking. She was standing over one of the few tables not covered in junk making some tea.

"Not this again, Akeno," Rias said. "I already told you I don't need the maids cleaning this place up. I already perfectly know where everything is!" Jake doubted that statement sincerely as he crossed the room and did his best not to step on the half a dozen anime figurines just laying on the floor in his path.

Jake made it to the side of her bedroom where her peerage was sitting on a couch, smiling at him and Rias while eating some snacks.

"Hello, it's nice to meet you all," Jake introduced himself to them. There was a blond guy who looked about his age, a younger girl with white hair, and of course, Rias's queen, Akeno, who smiled at Jake while pouring him a cup of tea. Tea wasn't really his thing, but he wasn't going to be rude and refuse.

The blond boy spoke first, elegantly. "Hello to you as well, Jake. I am Lady Rias's knight, Kiba."

The white-haired girl answered in between bites of her cookie. "I am Koneko," she said curtly.

Jake turned to Akeno, waiting for her to introduce herself. "Ara," she said, "I suppose it's my turn then. Nice to meet you, Jake, I am Akeno, the queen of Lady Rias."

"And my best friend," Rias added enthusiastically from the side.

Jake smiled at that. "Once again, it's nice to meet you all. Thanks for looking after my sister."

"Wait!" Rias exclaimed, "you forgot about Gasper!"

"Who?" Jake asked, looking around. He didn't see anyone else.

Rias just giggled and pointed to a box sitting next to the couch. "He's right there…in the box," she trailed off that last part with a sigh.

"Oh," Jake said before turning to address the…box. "Hello there, Gasper. Are you alright in there?"

"..."

There were a couple more seconds of awkward silence before a young sounding voice came from within the box. "I'm okay… it's just meeting new people is… scary."

"Gasper is a scaredy-cat," Koneko said bluntly while eating what appeared to be her fifth cookie since Jake sat down. Kiba just let out a wry smile at the comment while Akeno giggled into her hand. Jake had heard of shy kids before, but this seemed to be on a different level…

"It's okay," Rias said. "We're working on it. Under big sister Luna's advice, he's been attending therapy for a while now and he's actually spending more time out of his box than in them nowadays…" she said as if that was a perfectly normal thing to say. Jake just shrugged. It wasn't his problem anyway.

"Anyway, now that you're here, Jake," Rias started, "I was wondering if-"

She was cut off as a sudden orange glow popped up from the floor of her room and what Jake recognized as a devil teleportation circle appeared. It wasn't a circle that he recognized though. And judging by the unpleasant expression Rias had on her face after seeing it, whoever was coming in wasn't liked by her.

Jake put his guard up and prepared himself for a possible fight…

—-Bonus: What happened to Harry—-

A bit later, Jake met up with Luna again. He wanted to know what had happened with Harry and Hermione. Were they devils too?

Luna told Jake that they were not devils. They had actually been offered peerage by Grayfia to be transferred to Jake's peerage in the future but they declined. They just wanted to live out peaceful, normal lives in the small wizarding world.

Jake asked Luna what happened with Harry at the end of the tournament. The last he'd seen of his friend, he was being swallowed by vines, after all.

Luna explained to Jake that it was somewhat strange. About 10 minutes after Jake and Fleur touched the portkey and vanished; Harry, who had been safely recovered from being captured by the vines at that point in time, had suddenly dropped to the floor in agony in front of pretty much the entire crowd. He started screaming and claiming that his scar was burning! Then a black mist burst out of his forehead and actually took on the appearance of Voldemort for all to see before it screamed itself and faded from existence! Luna told him that needless to say, everybody was shocked at what they had just witnessed, and it took a couple of months before people started looking at Harry normally again.

Eventually, as all news topics go in the wizarding world, Harry's little stint with Mistymort coming out of his head was eventually forgotten when juicier gossip came to light.

She then went on to explain that it was later discovered that the Dark Mark completely disappeared from Snape's arm, and when they went to check the other Death Eaters, it was discovered the same had happened. It seemed that when Voldemort had been flung forward in time, his connection to Harry, along with his connection to his Death Eaters, had been severed completely. That was the proof everyone in the wizarding world finally needed to confirm "You-Know-Who" was truly dead and gone forever.

-End Chapter-

Leave some comments / reviews!!!

How'd you like it!? If you want to read ahead you can at p.a.t.r.e.o.n / FiveStarTomato. Thank you, regardless, for following my story to this point!

I would like to give a special thank you to my current Hero Team Patron(s): Rick, Nirojan, Benzaboyo, Carl, and William — Also another thank you to all my other patrons!