Chapter 1
Luna shrugged on her coat and grabbed her bag, double checked the address on her notepad, and called “I’m leaving now! I’ll be back for dinner.”
“Good luck, you’ve got this,” her husband’s voice called back from the living room, where he was enjoying his morning coffee.
Luna grinned to herself. Neville was always so supportive of her career. She pushed out of the front door and headed to the street and out of their wards where she discreetly apparated to London.
She had been nervous about taking this story, it was more closely related to her personal life than anything else she had done recently. It was also more interesting by miles than anything she had done recently. It was rare that such a good story just dropped into her lap like this.
The person she was going to interview lived in muggle London, so she made her way to the address on foot.
She wound up in front of a high end apartment. She took a slow breath to calm her nerves as she walked through the door and surveyed the luxurious lobby. She made her way to the front desk.
“Excuse me Ma’am,” she said in her normal dreamy voice, “I’m here to see one of your residents?”
The woman sitting at the front desk looked up at her suspiciously.
“What’s the room number?” she said in a monotone.
“Erm,” Luna looked down at her note, “Room 702.”
The secretary raised her eyebrows.
“I’ll check to see if you’re on the list, he normally doesn’t have visitors,” she answered. She searched through her stack of papers quickly.
“Luna… Lovegood?” she checked.
“That’s me,” Luna answered with a smile.
“Do you have any sort of identification? For security reasons?” The woman asked with a raised eyebrow.
Luna’s muggleborn intern had warned her when she took the story that she might need a muggle ID because of the story’s high profile. She reached into her coat pocket and presented her fake ID.
The secretary eyed it carefully for a few moments.
“Alright, we’ll have security escort you up.” She said, and inclined her head towards the left, where Luna saw some lifts. A security guard made his way over from his post at the door and ushered Luna to the lifts.
“Thank you,” she said, and then made her way over.
After a short ride to the seventh floor, Luna stepped out of the lift and made her way to room 702, following the guard. The guard did not bother to knock, and instead, took out a key and opened the door.
“You don’t need security to leave,” he said, “But make sure you come straight down when you’re done. We have a lot of residents who do not want to be bothered.”
Luna nodded, and thanked him, and then stepped quickly inside. She shut the door gently behind her.
She turned to see that she was in a short hallway. She felt a bit uncomfortable that she had not knocked.
She cautiously rapped her knuckles gently on the door behind her. “Hello, erm, it’s Luna, Luna Lovegood, from the Quibbler? Here for the 10:30 interview?”
There was no response.
She walked forward slowly, until she was standing at the end of the hallway.
“Oh,” she breathed.
The room before her was large and open, and there was sunlight streaming through the floor to ceiling penthouse windows. There was a large open-concept kitchen on one side with a beautiful wooden table for a dining area. On the other side there were several large dark colored couches around a coffee table and a massive flat screen TV. There appeared to be another hallway across from her, and from there she could see a staircase that must have led to where the bedrooms were.
What took her breath away was the utter disarray that the apartment was in. There were bottles and cans everywhere, some broken and spilled, others completely empty. Pillows were thrown off of the couches onto the floor. There was what appeared to be a destroyed cake on the kitchen counter, and there was frosting everywhere. As she crept forward, she noticed cigarettes and bowls on the coffee table. She spied a few stray pills and some white powder as well.
“What have you gotten yourself into?” she muttered quietly under her breath. She wasn’t super surprised, it fit his reputation. He was the Wizarding World’s favorite “bad boy”. He was constantly seen at clubs and parties with models and other A-listers. Girls fawned over his effortless good looks and tattoos, and the way his green eyes always looked so dangerous. He was probably the most controversial figure she could think of. Everyone was either in love with him, or hated him.
Suddenly, she heard movement coming from above the staircase.
“Mr. Potter?” she called, “I’m here for the interview?”
He appeared on the staircase and hurriedly made his way down. He was dressed in a loose t-shirt and a pair of black jeans. His hair looked freshly washed, and Luna was surprised how clean and put together he was, considering the state of his apartment.
He walked towards her, and opened his mouth to speak, before catching a glimpse of his living room. He shut his mouth and sighed.
“I am so sorry, let me clean this up,” he said in a surprisingly soft voice. He waved his hand and Luna took a step back as everything whirred around her. The trash disappeared, the pillows were resettled in their places correctly, and suddenly, the apartment was looking as luxurious as the rest of the building.
Luna was suddenly reminded of how powerful he was. His image now often made people forget that he had defeated the Dark Lord at only 14 years-old. He didn’t ever display his power now, and he had never explained what had happened. A few months after their battle, he had completely disappeared from Hogwarts, and society in general. It wasn’t until a few years later he had resurfaced and started using his name to build a career. Sometimes, it felt like there were two different people. Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, and defeater of You-Know-Who, and then Harry Potter, the trashy celebrity. Or Harry Potter, the sexiest wizard alive, according to Witch Weekly and teenage witches across the UK.
“I hadn’t checked to see if my friends had cleaned up, I should have looked before you came, I apologize,” he explained.
“Oh, um, it’s okay,” she said timidly. Then she put on her work voice, “I’m Luna Lovegood, from the Quibbler, we were at Hogwarts together for a bit, but I was a Ravenclaw, and a year younger.”
“I see, I’m Harry Potter,” he said, and stuck out his hand, which she shook firmly. “Would you like something to drink? I could make tea, or coffee, or whatever you prefer.”
“Tea is fine, thank you,” Luna said, a bit caught off-guard again by his manners. Harry nodded and headed over to the kitchen. Luna followed him.
“You can sit down if you like,” Harry gestured to some stools by the kitchen counter.
Luna slid onto a stool and watched the man as he prepared the tea. He was a bit shorter than she had thought, still tall, but not as tall as Neville. He was lean, but she could see that his arms did have slight muscle. A tattoo near the back of his neck was peeking out from under his collar, but Luna could not tell what it was. She also caught a glimpse of another one on his left forearm. It was two thin lines of writing from just below his elbow to just below his wrist. She, of course, knew from the tabloids that it was rumored to be written in Parselscript, because no one could tell what it said.
“Here,” Harry slid the tea cup to her, and also passed over a container of sugar and a pitcher of milk.
She fixed her tea to her personal preference and then got out her notepad.
“Alright, before we begin, do you have anything you want to tell me off the record, like what’s off limits, or anything that you want to talk about specifically?” she asked. She wanted to make sure he was comfortable.
“Erm, if I’m being honest, I don’t even really know what this interview is for, my manager set it up, so just ask whatever you want,” Harry said. “And we can go over to the couches if you want to, they’re more comfortable.”
Luna nodded, and they settled themselves so that Harry was on a couch facing the window, and Luna was across from him facing the kitchen.
“So basically, we just wanted to do an article about you, your life, address the rumors, and give you a chance to tell your story, you haven’t spoken to the press very much about your personal life, or what you think about your reputation,” Luna explained, “We’re not really sure what type of article it’s going to be, that will be more clear after this interview. I’ll be asking you a very wide range of questions to try to figure that out. And of course we’ll run everything by you to make sure you're comfortable with it before we put anything out.”
“I appreciate that,” Harry nodded. Harry’s calm demeanor had thrown her off of her anticipated script. She had thought that the notorious playboy would be ready to talk about himself, or be a bit disrespectful. Harry was quiet, and polite, and she wasn’t sure what to think about that.
“I suppose I’ll begin by asking, why have you chosen to give an interview now, and why did you agree to do it with us?” Luna asked.
After she had graduated Hogwarts, Luna had taken over her father’s magazine company, the Quibbler, and she had grown it to include news from politics, sports, world news, and celebrities. It still had its own unique style, and stories that wouldn’t be published in the Daily Prophet, but its audience had grown impressively. People appreciated the honesty in the Quibbler, and its freedom from what the Ministry wanted printed. Still, most celebrities only did interviews for things like Witch Weekly, or people like Rita Skeeter.
“I suppose I’ve grown a bit tired of being asked things constantly, I figure if I do an interview, and say my piece, people can do what they will with that, and maybe people will leave my personal life alone a bit more,” Harry explained, “And as far as the Quibbler, it’s the only newspaper I read.”
Luna didn’t let her surprise show as she jotted that down.
“And why is that?”
“It’s the only one that feels honest. In everything else, it’s so obviously fake, or at least biased. I don’t care to read that,” Harry said.
Luna nodded.
“So, you don’t enjoy people prying into your personal life, yet you consistently put yourself in the spotlight for seemingly more attention, can you explain that to me?” Luna said. This was her first prodding question. It was no secret that people called Harry Potter a major attention-seeker. He was always doing different advertisements for brands, modeling in campaigns for products and services, it was hard to go through a day without seeing him on the cover of something, or on a poster on a storefront. So for him to claim that he didn’t want the attention felt contradictory.
Harry inclined his head as if conceding a point.
“I understand that it seems… like I’m lying,” he eventually said bluntly. He sighed. “I don’t enjoy the attention. My job is to be the face of things. Products. Services. I promote things with my image. That’s how I make money. My job is not to share my personal life with the entire world.”
“But you understand that the more you put yourself out there, the more people want to know what you’re like behind closed doors?” Luna asked. Harry simply nodded.
“So why not quit? You surely have enough money, you could not work, or get a different job,” Luna suggested.
“I could. But, sometimes I get to promote a good cause. And I enjoy the people I work with.” Harry said with a nod, as if he was convincing himself. Luna waited for more, but Harry didn’t say anything else. To Luna, that answer felt weak. She vowed to dig deeper into that later, but she sensed that a wall had been put up.
“Alright,” she said, “Why don’t we start at the beginning then. You were raised by your muggle relatives after your parents died, correct?”
“Yes.”
“And how was that?” she asked. Harry had never mentioned his upbringing before, so she really wanted to get that part for her story.
“It was fine,” he said shortly.
Alright, Luna noted in her head, That’s off-limits.
“And then you came to Hogwarts, after being introduced to magic, I’m sure that had to be a shock?” she asked carefully. It was theorized that Harry hadn’t known about magic until Hogwarts, but it had never been confirmed.
“It was, I had been raised muggle, so it was a whole new world,” Harry nodded, “There was so much to learn about magic, school, and even who I was.”
“Who was the one who told you that you were the ‘Boy-Who-Lived’?” she asked.
“I think it was Rubeus Hagrid, he came to pick me up to get my school supplies, and I didn’t understand why everyone was staring and pointing at me, so he explained it to me,” Harry replied. He stared out the window, seemingly reliving the memory.
“And how did you feel?”
“I was surprised of course, overwhelmed a bit too I would imagine. I don’t completely recall, but I was eleven, and I didn’t know anything. It didn’t really sink in until I got to Hogwarts and everyone was talking about me though,” Harry answered. Luna suddenly felt a pang of sympathy for eleven-year-old Harry. She knew what it was like to be pointed at.
“Did you make friends at Hogwarts? Or did your name and status get in the way of that?” she asked.
“I made a few friends back in the day, and we were close for a while. I had a decent time in those first few years,” Harry answered fondly. “They made everything happening easier to deal with.”
“You played Quidditch, correct?” After Harry nodded, Luna continued, “Is that something you still enjoy?”
“I suppose I would, I haven’t done it in so long,” he said wistfully.
“Why not?”
“Well I don’t have anyone much to play with do I?” He laughed dryly for a second before he became serious again, “No, it’s really that I haven’t got the time.”
“I see,” Luna nodded. She looked at her notes to see what to ask next.
“So you enjoyed the first four years at Hogwarts?” she asked.
Harry didn’t immediately answer her.
“I enjoyed parts of them.” he answered very carefully, “And what I didn’t enjoy, well that’s unique to me, and not a reflection of the school for everyone else.”
“Could you give me an example of something that was unique to you?” Luna asked. Harry eyed her for a moment.
“Well I suppose the TriWizard tournament,” he said. Luna sighed in frustration mentally. Everyone already knew about that. She was sure that that’s why Harry had answered in that way. He hadn’t given her anything new to work with. She wanted to push, but she didn’t want to push too hard, so she decided to move on.
“After you defeated You-Know-Who, you didn’t return to Hogwarts. Do you want to tell me about that decision? There’s been a lot of speculation about that.” Luna said. Harry’s refusal to return to Hogwarts was one of the most controversial things about him. Some people thought it well within his rights. Other people said it was unfair, that he was arrogant, and thought he was too-good to be like everyone else. In the rest of the summer after he had defeated You-Know-Who, he was given awards by the Ministry and received a lot of financial compensation. His face was everywhere. People theorized that he might have deemed Hogwarts unnecessary with his new-found wealth and status.
Other people thought that it was a safety reason, because You-Know-Who had broken his Death Eaters out of Azkaban before his demise, and they had been running rampant, taking their rage out on muggles and proclaiming that they were going to make Harry Potter pay. However, after the Ministry rounded them all up, Harry had still not returned to the public eye.
“There were a lot of things that went into it,” Harry said, “I can’t really give you one reason, there were security issues, I had differences of opinion with some people, and I didn’t feel that I needed to go to Hogwarts to finish my education. I completed my O.W.L’s and N.E.W.T’s just fine on my own.”
Luna once again felt frustrated by his lack of substantial answer. Harry was good at this. He said a lot of words, but nothing new. And he had tried to distract her by bringing up his achievement of perfect scores without a complete Hogwarts education. When he re-entered society, people criticized him for not finishing his schooling, so he made his test-scores public. People were shocked by his perfect performance in every subject available, and many accused him of cheating.
Luna allowed herself to be led away from her previous question. “Speaking of which, would you like to tell us about how you achieved your scores?”
“I studied a lot, I had a great tutor for a while, and read a lot. Unfortunately my tutor passed away before we finished, and I felt that I owed it to him to do as well as I could. I worked really hard, and it paid off,” Harry said.
Luna had become alert at the mention of a tutor, this was new.
“Who was your tutor?” she asked. Harry grinned slightly.
“Nicholas Flamel,” he said simply. Luna had to keep her jaw from dropping to the floor. Well that explained a lot. Getting tutored by one of the most famous wizards in history would produce great scores. Especially if someone had the power that Harry did.
“So while you were gone, you were with him?” she checked.
“Sometimes,” Harry said, “He was a great teacher.”
“He was friends with Albus Dumbledore, correct?” she asked. Another big source of controversy surrounding Harry was his relationship with the Hogwarts Headmaster. Initially, everywhere Harry was, Dumbledore was there too. Then, suddenly, there seemed to be tension, and when Harry disappeared, Dumbledore didn’t have anything to say. When Harry came back, they didn’t associate, not even once.
“I suppose,” Harry said vaguely.
“Did you see him during your tutelage?” she asked carefully.
“No.”
“Okay, and just to confirm Nicholas Flamel passed away because he decided to destroy the Philosopher's stone?” Luna asked. It was public knowledge, but she wanted to see if Harry had anything to add.
“He did.” Harry said, seeming slightly sad. Luna gave him a moment to reflect.
Suddenly, the silence was disrupted by a slight buzzing noise. Harry flinched ever so slightly and reached into his back pocket to pull out a small rectangular device.
“Is that a muggle cellphone?” Luna asked. She recognized it from when she had discussed it with her intern who had one.
“Yeah, my team uses them because it’s faster than owls, and I was able to fix them to work in magical environments,” Harry explained as he typed something out on the screen.
“Oh interesting,” Luna commented. Harry stood.
“I’m sorry, but it looks like I have to go to the shoot now, my manager mentioned that right?” he asked as she stood as well.
“She did, she mentioned that I could come along and continue asking questions,” Luna said. She had agreed to do an interview as well as a follow along throughout Harry’s day to try to get a bigger glimpse into his life.
“Perfect, I could side-along you?” Harry offered, extending his arms. Luna nodded and grasped on. The pair of them whirred away.