Alright," he sighed. "Now that we're no longer talking in the Great Hall... and, therefore, right out in public... I was hoping, for a start, you could explain a few things for me, Luna.
"But, first," he said, holding up a finger. He then looked to the side, a little and called, "Dobby!"
His own personal house elf popped in and said, "Oh, yes; Master Harry?"
Indicating Luna, Harry introduced them to each other. "Dobby; this is Miss Luna Lovegood. Luna; this is one of our house elves, Dobby."
"Hello, Miss Luna," said Dobby, looking at her. "Dobby is happy to meet more of Master Harry's friends."
Luna smiled back and said, "Hello, Dobby. I like your outfit."
Dobby beamed most proudly and said, "I is wearing Master Harry's house elf uniform. All the other house elveses are very jealous!"
"It looks very nice," she complemented him.
Dobby stood a little taller with pride and said, "Thank you, Miss Luna."
"While I enjoy listening to my house elf being praised for his dress," Harry chuckled. "I have a mission for you and Winky, Dobby."
"Yes, Sir," said Dobby.
"Miss Luna has had some of her personal effects go missing since she's been a student here for the past two plus years," Harry explained. "Your mission is to track down as much of it as you can and return it to her with the rest of her effects. This is a mission that I very much suspect is going to take you quite some time. So, it's something for you to do when you've got nothing better to do.
"And, I don't want to find out either of you have allowed yourselves to get too tired or too exhausted when you're doing this, either. If you can get the other house elves in the castle to help, that's also allowed. Do you understand your mission?"
"Yes, Sir!" Dobby almost barked back.
"Very good," said Harry. "You may carry on with what you were doing, Dobby. And, thank you, again."
And the little elf disappeared.
"I think you're turning Dobby into a soldier," Hermione giggled while Daphne snickered.
"I think he wants to be," he laughed.
With a sigh he looked over at the still smiling Luna and said, "If there's anyone I trust to find your things for you, Luna; it's Dobby. He's quite... tenacious... when he feels he needs to do something."
"I think you're right, Harry," she said, her smile slipping a little. "I don't know why I didn't think of asking the castle elves to help me find my things."
Harry smiled and said, "Sometimes, the most obvious thing to do is the last thing we think of."
"That's quite profound," she said, a little surprised.
"Yes, well," he replied, a little uncomfortable before changing the subject. "Now. We've been appreciative of how you've let us know about the state of our bonds, and that a latent bond between Hermione and Daphne is also there.
"As you probably know, a three-way soul bond like ours is pretty much completely unheard of. Because of that, we're worried we might do the wrong thing, or the right thing too late, and cause harm to either existing one, or the latent one. That you can see the bonds, and are able to gauge their 'health'... for wont of a better term... has gone a long way to alleviate our fears over them. So, for that, you have our thanks."
"That's what friends are for, Harry," she softly said. "We are friends, aren't we? I sense that we already are, and have been for quite some time. But, I also know that this is a new friendship. It is most confusing."
"Yes, Luna," said Hermione. "We are friends. We know you will be a good and trustworthy friend to us. We just can't tell you how or why we know that."
"It was the angels, wasn't it?" she asked.
Harry snorted and said to Daphne, "I told you she's very perceptive."
"That's quite a remarkable gift," Daphne said to the younger girl, a little awed. "But, sorry; we still can't tell you if you're correct or not."
Luna happily said, "That's alright. I understand."
"Thank you for your understanding," said Harry. "Now, we returned to our apartment here last night to discuss how you let us know about the latent bond between Daphne and Hermione. At first, we had some confusion over how such a bond could be finalised, or sealed, or whatever it is. After all, between two ladies, there's no... coitus."
Blushing a little he soldiered on past it. "So, I came up with the idea that it isn't the physical act of sexual intercourse that finalises the bond; it's the emotional act. Then, from there, we developed a hypothesis about the whole bond from when it is initiated to when it is finalised.
"Now, I believe... and I think I have both ladies at least somewhat agreeing with me...: he said, glancing at his bondmates, "that it's the emotional component we need to concentrate upon. As an example, this morning you said the bond between Daphne and I strengthened a little. However, there was no physical change to our relationship. But, there was an emotional one."
Turning to Daphne, Harry asked, "Would you mind sharing what happened, emotionally, love?"
Daphne sat thinking about it for a while, and everyone else just let her figure it out for herself. After all, it was quite a personal matter.
"I figured out two things," she eventually but softly said. "The first, is that I'm falling in love with Harry. The second, is that I realised I actually do trust him; at least, more than I thought I did."
The surge of happiness Harry heard on hearing that made him feel he could power a massive patronus from that one feeling and memory alone. He wanted to get up and hug her, so he did.
When he backed off again, Luna giggled and said, "It looks like your hypothesis is sound."
"Oh?" Harry asked.
"The strength of the bond between you surged a little when Daphne admitted that," she shyly replied. "It's settled down again now, but it's definitely stronger than it was a few minutes ago. It's pretty much on a par with the bond between Harry and Hermione, now."
Harry grinned and couldn't help but feel a little smug to have his belief confirmed.
"Thank you, Luna," he said with a wide grin. "I think this is going to make it a lot easier for us to work towards finalising the bond, sometime down the road."
The conversation then moved on to other topics and the four chatted freely until they realised they had to get down to the Great Hall for dinner. The talk also showed that, though she had this light and almost flighty side, Luna was also quite brilliant in her own right with serious matters.
Together, as friends, they headed down to the Great Hall for dinner.
After dinner, Luna returned to her own common room to get started on her own homework, while the three bondmates headed back to their apartment and their own homework. And, though he didn't say he was doing it to the two girls, he also did his best to make a start on a logical list of different levels of emotional responses to physical acts they could explore.
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