Linny High School/Secondary School! AU
(Thank you so much, @lunaandginny, I really appreciate your help!)
Luna walked down the hallway, playing with her pastel rubix cube and keeping an eye out for anything different that had happened to the old school. Nothing ever did, but she kept hoping. After all, it’s necessary to hope for things, she thought, especially when they seem impossible. As she walked by idly, waiting for first period to start, people jeered at her radish earrings and her knee high striped socks. She didn’t care.
It had become a part of her daily routine, and it may or may not have caused her to wear even crazier things, that still fit with her. A boy made fun of her doodles on her sneakers. Before she could keep walking away, a red flash emerged and slapped him in the face.
The boy ran away with his posse, muttering curses at the girl who had just saved Luna. Ginny Weasley turned and put a hand on Luna’s shoulder. The direct contact sent tingles down Luna’s arm and all the way to her fingertips. Luna was sure she was red right now. She cursed the obviousness of her affection. Those silly tingles, or as she liked to call them, nargles, were always getting in her way.
“Are you alright, Luna?” Ginny asked. Luna watched as her long, straight red hair moved side to side, swaying and catching the light.
“Hm?” Luna was jolted out of her observations. “Oh, sorry, Ginny. I got distracted. Yes, I’m fine. Though it wasn’t necessary for you to slap that boy. He didn’t deserve it, really, if he wants to make fun of my creative expression.” Ginny laughed.
“It’s fine, Luna, I enjoyed it.” Her smile faded, and was replaced by something Luna identified as anxiety. The girl’s nervous expression made her uneasy, especially since Ginny was the most confident person that Luna knew.
“Ginny, what’s wrong?” Luna asked, smiling a little and ignoring the fact that people were telling her to get out of their way. Ginny looked up from staring at the hem of her green jumper.
“Oh, nothing. It’s just, uh–my friends-” Luna sighed. Ginny’s friends. A group she could never be a part of.
“-and I were playing Truth or Dare, and they Dared me to ask you something.” Ginny smiled nervously again. Luna frowned. She didn’t like to see anything less than confidence on this amazing person.
“What’s the question, Ginny?” Luna asked. She hoped it wasn’t something silly, like why did she wear a unicorn headband or what’s the difference between a narwhal and a beluga. People always asked her those type of questions, as if she wasn’t intelligent enough to truly know something. Ginny sighed.
“Well, Luna, they wanted me to ask you if, uh, you um, you have a crush on me.” Ginny looked down so fast that Luna was afraid she would get whiplash. It took her a moment to register what the redhead had asked her. Did Luna have a crush on Ginny. The nargles began to bug Luna again, sending a blush all over her body.
Hmm, Luna thought, do I love Ginny? She knew the answer was yes, of course. But she couldn’t say that. It would be too embarassing. And besides, she did not want to give those awful people Ginny associated with the satisfaction of being able to make fun of her. It was the one time in her life she cared what people thought. But you know, Luna pondered, as it is a question that Ginny isn’t asking herself, but her friends are asking, I might as well lie. It won’t do me any good to be made fun of more for answering a Truth or Dare question honestly. Luna smiled and straightened her shoulders. Her rebellion against Ginny’s friends began.
“No, Ginny, I do not like you.”
There, she thought, sensible and straightforward. A perfect lie.
Ginny looked at Luna for a long moment, nodded her head slowly, and walked away. Luna smiled to herself. Her friends wouldn’t be able to tease her now! She dealt with enough already. This was good self care, she convinced herself. A nagging part of her asked if Ginny had really meant the question. No no no brain, she thought, I’m sure it was just a Dare. And so, when the bell rang for first period, Luna was concerned with absolutely nothing but today’s English class and what they would learn about Edgar Allan Poe today. No thoughts crossed her mind of Ginny at all. Good for me, too, she thought again. I can’t afford distractions right now, especially in such a fascinating unit.
Of course, there are other forms of distraction. Natural distraction, if you get what I mean. 30 minutes into the period, Luna raised her hand, blamed the wrackspurts, and ran off to the restroom. She walked into the blue place, lined with metal stalls and the old “The Chamber of Secrets has Been Opened–LOL NAH” inscription on the wall, that, try as they might, the teachers could not get off. Luna was just sitting down when she heard the crying in the stall next to her.
That wasn’t a normal thing to hear in a restroom. Luna finished her business, courtesy of the wrackspurts, and concluded that if someone was indeed crying, they wouldn’t be using the restroom. Therefore, Luna climbed up on the toilet seat, then the handle of the flush, and peeked over the dividing wall between her and the stall next to her. To her surprise, sitting on the floor with her head between her knees and her body shuddering with sobs was–
Luna felt a bit awkward, spying on her crush in the lavatory, of all places.
“Erm… Ginny? Are you alright?” She tried to show more of her face over the wall. She was quite short, and she wanted Ginny to know it was her. Ginny looked up angrily.
“Oh. Um, Ginny, I think the crumple-horned snorcacks have done something to your emotions. I can help! I know just the thing, if I can find it…” Luna searched her pocket.
“Ah yes. Here, Ginny!” Luna threw down a small stuffed lion and a piece of chocolate.
“That should get rid of the snorcacks!” Ginny laughed wetly through her tears, catching the lion with her hands and the chocolate through her mouth, then, upon realizing it was wrapped, spit it out, unwrapped it, and caught it with her mouth again.
“Thanks, Luna.” She said, wiping her eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Luna asked. What a curious way to start off her morning. Ginny shrugged, feigning indifference, it seemed. But on her face Luna saw the clear signs of a heartbreaker. Luna tried to show more of her face above the stall.
Ginny sighed. “You, it seems, Luna. After all, you said you didn’t like me.”
Luna almost toppled off of the toilet seat.
“What? Have the nargles gotten to you, too? I never said I didn’t like you!”
Ginny twiddled her finger back and forth. “Ah, ah, ah, but you did. You said directly that you didn’t like me.”
“Well, yes, but in the crush terms!”
“Oh, Ginny, I’m so sorry. I do like you! How could I hate the most beautiful person in the world?”
The words popped out of Luna’s mouth before she was even thinking about them. She felt her face go the most red color that the nargles had ever turned it. Ginny cocked an eyebrow.
“The most beautiful person in the world?”
“Luna, do you think I’m beautiful?”
She didn’t answer for about three seconds.
“Well I mean, yes. You’re the most beautiful, funny, powerful, brave, strong, smart, amazing, witty, athletic, gorgeous-”
She didn’t notice when Ginny climbed up on the toilet seat.
“-shining, unique, creative, chivalrous-”
She definitely didn’t notice when Ginny put her elbows on the divider between them.
“-courageous, pretty, intelligent, humorous-”
And she most certainly did not notice when Ginny tilted Luna’s face up toward hers.
“-girl in the whole, entire, round-!”
But she absolutely, definitely, certainly noticed when Ginny shut up her ramble and kissed her.
It felt like the nargles were throwing a surprise party for her emotions. Her entire body tingled, and all she could focus on was Ginny’s lips on hers. For a minute, she forgot to close her eyes. But then two nargles pushed down her eyelids and insisted that Luna kiss Ginny back. And she obliged, quite happily. The next thing she knew, the kiss was over and Ginny was sliding under the divider into Luna’s stall. She kissed Luna again.
“Luna, I will ask you again. Do you have a crush on me?” Ginny seemed to be almost bursting with happiness. And at that moment, Luna didn’t care about the homophobia or the teasing, or Ginny’s friends, or sincerity, or Edgar Allan Poe, or nargles, or snorcacks, or wrackspurts. All she cared about was Ginny.
“Of COURSE I have a crush on you!” She exclaimed. Ginny smiled and opened the door to the rest of the bathroom, gently pulling Luna along with her. But before Ginny could kiss her again, Luna heard a stall door slam open and there, curly hair surrounding her head in a giant halo, her mouth splitting into a buck toothed grin, and her dark freckles practically glowing against her brown skin, was Hermione Granger. For a minute, they all stared at each other, Ginny’s face turning as red as her hair. Before Luna could explain–
