The African Spearnose
Title: The African Spearnose
Pairing: Ginny/Luna
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 3,066
Disclaimer: Not owning, just borrowing.
Summary: Ginny spends the day at the Lovegoods over the summer, in awe as always at Luna's many fascinating traits.
Notes: Takes place the summer between OOTP and HBP. Had the opposite problem with this fic that I did with my last one; this was originally meant to be a one-shot, but as the beginning developped more, the second half stood alone more. So there will be a sequel upcoming, and not to spoil anything, but expect a different tone and a heavier rating. Also, 'tis un-betaed, and even if it were, all mistakes would still be mine. Special thanks though to
toxic_corn , who read parts of it beforehand, and still laughs out loud at how I accidentally wrote "wolfing down halfing down half the plate". So at least that mistake is fixed!
Ginny figured she was having far more fun helping in the garden than she had any right to. At the Burrow, helping in the garden consisted of angrily hunting down gnomes and hurling them over your shoulder in a disorienting fashion. With the Lovegoods, she mainly stood somewhere out of the way, pretending to pick weeds but really just observing the proceedings with a smile, and hoping not to get bitten. She had to laugh as she saw Luna’s father bring a tray of food the likes of which she had never seen to a conglomeration of gnomes. Her family loved the Lovegoods and their many eccentricities, but she could see Fred and George hexing him for catering to the gnomes. Sure enough, Ginny watched as the knee-high creatures, beasts that they were, rejected his peace offering, one of them biting him squarely on the knuckle where he was carrying the tray. “Oh, Luna,” he called. “Would you come here a moment, please?”
Luna went running across the garden, and Ginny, curious to see what Luna was being summoned for, lollygagged behind. “Would you like me to, Daddy?” Luna asked in an airy, singsong voice.
“It never hurts to practice.
“But you’ve been blessed by the Gernumblies!”
“Oh, I’ve been blessed by the Gernumblies before. I don’t think that one liked me very much though, this bite is rather painful.”
“Alright, then.” Ginny watched, at first with bemusement, then with awe, as Luna pulled out her wand, and when she cast a spell, it began to emit a sort of blue smoke around her father’s hand. When the smoke dissipated, Ginny was shocked to see that although there was still a fair bit of dried blood on his finger, the wound had completely disappeared.
Mr. Lovegood thanked his daughter, then went inside the rook-shaped house to do something a bit further away from the gnomes he claimed to love so much. “Wow,” Ginny said once he was out of earshot.
“Oh, it’s alright. I’m sure he’ll be friends with the gnomes again the next time he’s out here. He just doesn’t understand why they bite sometimes.”
“No, not that. What you did just then. That was amazing.”
“What? Healing Daddy’s gnomie bite?”
Ginny blushed as she was forced to stifle a giggle over the words ‘gnomie bite’. “Where did you learn to do that?”
“Oh, Daddy taught me,” Luna replied as if it weren’t the big deal Ginny was making it out to be. Ginny’s mother - and her father, too, to a lesser extent - knew some basic first aid spells and care, and were trusted with gnome bites many a time parenting the Weasley children, but usually a bandage was still required afterwards; Ginny had never seen someone heal as quickly and as perfectly as Luna just had.
“That was amazing,” Ginny echoed, still in awe.
“Okay, if you think it was amazing, then I’m glad I could amaze you.” If anyone else had said that to Ginny, she would have heard it dripping with sarcasm. This was Luna, though, and Ginny wasn’t sure Luna understood the concept of sarcasm. Many of their classmates used this to take advantage of the poor doe-eyed girl, but Ginny found it to be one of Luna’s more endearing qualities, and one of the reasons they were such good friends. Sometimes it’s easy to be friends when you’re nothing but honest with each other.
“I’m glad, too,” Ginny replied, and the girls finished weeding the garden before Luna’s father called them in for lunch. The girls went inside, leaving their trowels scattered behind them, and joined him in the kitchen. It was a small room at the base of the tower, with large windows facing the back garden letting in copious amounts of sunlight. Ginny took a seat at the table with her back to the windows, figuring she’d much rather have the sun warm her back than blind her eyes. As Luna took the seat next to her, leaving the seat closest to the food open for her father, Ginny smiled and gave her friend a playful, gentle kick under the table. She giggled as Luna checked under the table to see what creature had attacked her, but when Luna saw Ginny’s toes wiggling through her sandals, she sat back up in her chair, gave Ginny a wink she wasn’t expecting, and returned the smile.
Ginny looked back at Luna with a crooked smirk out of the left side of her mouth, trying to interpret the unexpected wink, when Luna’s father turned away from the stove carrying three plates of food. “What is this?” she asked brightly, looking at what closely resembled scrambled eggs, save of course for being bright purple. Ginny asked only out of curiosity, having a strong desire to know what something was before it entered her mouth, but not out of disdain or disgust. She was rather pleased she didn’t take after her brother Ron in terms of manners, as he would take one look at purple scrambled eggs, contort his face into a look of disgust, and whiningly ask what it was, all the while wolfing down half the plate before anyone bothered to answer the question.
“Ah, dragon eggs, Ginevra,” Luna’s father replied, clearly pleased that she was showing an interest.
“Oh!” she exclaimed excitedly. “My brother Charlie works with dragons! What breed?”
“African Spearnose. Devilish creatures they are. They have the most unique method of taking down their prey. They don’t bite you see, the way most dragons do-”
“Some have these massive claws,” Luna squealed.
“Or the Horntail Harry had to fight in the Tournament!” Ginny said with such excitement that she slammed her fork down on the table and nearly sent purple eggs flying across the room. “That was scary.”
Mr. Lovegood wasn’t at all annoyed by the interruption; he lived to discuss the creatures of the magical world, whether their existence had been proven or not. “But you see, the Spearnose doesn’t do any of that. Instead, it uses its rather long and pointed snout. Some wizards think, since it has something resembling a beak, that it may be a separate bird-like creature, but it certainly has reptilian scales and the like, not to mention that it very clearly breathes fire. But - oh, what was I saying?”
“Its nose,” Ginny smiled.
“Ah yes, well, you see, that’s what it uses for its weapon. If you’re unlucky enough to be chosen for its next meal, it will simply-” Rather than using words to describe the dragon’s finishing move, he picked up his butter knife and made what was clearly a violent stabbing motion at Ginny, who happened to be seated across from him.
Ginny, surprisingly unfazed by nearly being stabbed, merely continued the conversation without breaking stride. “Have you ever seen an African Spearnose?” she asked.
“Sadly, no,” he replied, genuinely mournfully.
“Daddy has a friend in Mauritania,” Luna explained. “He’s quite interesting. You’d like him, Ginny. He brought us a whole batch of eggs just a few days ago.”
“But what if they hatch?” Ginny asked, shuddering - but only slightly - at the thought of a violent dragon with a stabbing nose living in the neighborhood.
“Oh-ho, you just keep them cold, my dear girl,” Luna’s father laughed in a way that sounded quite like Father Christmas. “Maybe Luna would show them to you after we eat here.”
“I’d like that,” Ginny replied, and she flashed the girl sitting next to her a smile that would disarm anyone not named Luna Lovegood. Luna, though, seemed a tad distracted by something shiny on the opposite wall. This was not unusual, as the Lovegoods’ house was well stocked in odd or shiny things in various shapes and sizes. Ginny loved visiting during the summer; it was always worthwhile to see what new unusual item they had found to decorate their house, or use for whatever research they were doing. Of course, she couldn’t help but smile when she realized that all Luna was distracted by was the sunlight reflecting off the metal finish of the oven.
At first, the dragon eggs they were eating tasted not unlike the chicken eggs that Ginny had eaten her entire life, but she found that once she closed her mouth and started chewing them, it was as if they melted into a buttery goodness unlike anything she’d ever tasted before. Ron would eat anything he could as fast as he could, but Ginny was much more of a connoisseur, unafraid to try anything, but wanting to savor what was in her mouth. Again, she chalked it up to better manners, and perhaps, a dash of common sense and decency.
When they were done, Luna led Ginny through the fields they had just weeded to the farmhouse out back. As Luna opened the door, Ginny smiled. They were entering a veritable menagerie of magical creatures of the non-dangerous variety. A pen of Nifflers constantly digging was on their right, and a holly tree infested with Bowtruckles on their left. When they closed the door behind them, a Kneazle that very closely resembled Hermione’s cat Crookshanks darted down the middle of the pathway and rubbed against Ginny’s ankles. “Oh, he likes you!” Luna smiled. Then, with sudden resolve, she continued, “Come, this way.”
Luna opened the door at the other end of the farmhouse, which Ginny had assumed just led back outside. What she saw instead caused her lower jaw to involuntarily fall to the floor. It was a small room, not much larger than an average-size closet, and all of the walls, the floor, and even the ceiling were covered in a sheet of blue sparkling ice. Luna closed the door behind them, and no sooner had she warned Ginny to watch her step than the redhead felt her legs slip out from under her. She instinctively reached out for Luna’s wrist to save herself, only to have Luna then fall on top of her.
It took a moment for Ginny to realize that she was enjoying having Luna’s body pressed against hers more than she ought to. When she apologized, she wasn’t sure if it was for her clumsiness or for holding Luna in place for longer than was strictly necessary, although with her on top, it was kind of Luna’s prerogative as to when they would get up.
“That’s okay,” Luna said as she stood up carefully. “The ice is rather slippery.” She was far from mean, only saying it as a statement of fact, perhaps on the off chance Ginny wasn’t clear on why she had fallen.
“Yeah, I can see that. Are those them?” she asked, pointing to a shelf with a row of extremely large multi-colored eggs. Luna nodded. “They’re big.”
“Oh yes. I suppose they’d have to be. Dragons are a lot bigger than chickens and owls. I mean, I don’t know how big an African Spearnose is, but they must be pretty big. Between the three of us, we probably only ate half an egg just now. Daddy usually just fries one up whenever we start running low, and then we save the rest.”
Ginny just smiled as Luna rambled on and on. Her eyes wandered around the room, admiring the speckled eggs, the sparkling walls, and the ice blue butterflies fluttering overhead.
“Flying azures,” Luna remarked when she saw Ginny’s gaze after rambling about the dragon eggs a few more moments. “They like the cold.”
“They’re beautiful.” Ginny gazed at them a bit longer, then turned to Luna. “Everything about you is beautiful.” There was an awkward silence - at least for Ginny, Luna was usually fairly oblivious to awkward silences, or awkwardness in general - and Ginny replayed the sentence in her mind. That was definitely not what she meant to say, something about her house, how everything she owned was beautiful. But as Ginny looked at Luna, her cascading blond hair and big blue eyes, she realized that what she accidentally said was in fact true. She looked into her eyes, noticing that they were exactly the same shade of blue as the butterflies, their twinkling reminiscent of the butterflies’ fluttering wings, and she repeated the crooked, unsure grin.
Luna smiled. “Thank you,” she said simply, clearly not finding anything unusual in what Ginny said. She visited this room nearly every day, and agreed with Ginny that it was one of the more beautiful sights; she never tired of studying the butterflies or admiring the sparkling ice on the walls. However, on this occasion, she was not fascinated by the room, she was fascinated by Ginny. Luna followed her eyes, clearly pleased that Ginny found the dragon eggs and the butterflies and the magical ice as interesting as she did. The girls were dressed in summer clothes, though - Ginny in a T-shirt and jeans that fit quite nicely over her bum, and Luna in a yellow floral-print sundress that suited her perpetually sunny disposition - and were not dressed for spending a prolonged amount of time in an oversized magical equivalent of a refrigerator.
As soon as Ginny crossed her arms across her chest and started rubbing her hands over her biceps in an attempt to warm up, Luna was standing right behind her massaging her shoulders. Ginny shivered, and she realized fairly quickly that it was not because she was cold. At first, she assumed that it was a result of surprise, but as the sensations ran through her nerves, it occurred to her that she was shuddering because she was enjoying Luna’s touch. It was soft and gentle, massaging her shoulders as she tried to warm them, the exact opposite of the touching she’d experienced from Michael or Dean. They were teenage boys, and generally speaking, they behaved as such, spending most of their time together mindlessly pawing at any body part Ginny would let them. While it was true that occasionally they’d manage to hit exactly the right spot with a more gentle touch, most of the time Ginny left whatever hiding spot they were snogging in more annoyed than anything else. There was something in Luna’s touch that illuminated Ginny, sparked an epiphany that this was what was missing from her early relationships.
With a dawning comprehension, Ginny ducked out from under Luna’s arms and turned to face her. She looked down into Luna’s eyes and gave her a hesitant bit of a smile. The smile was returned, and Ginny had to stifle a giggle as she watched Luna’s eyes begin to dart back and forth. She could tell that Luna didn’t know what was about to happen, but her nerves seemed to be remarkably under control. This amused Ginny immensely, since she knew exactly what was about to happen, yet it was all she could do to keep her heart from beating straight out of her chest. Well, if Luna was going to be so at ease with it, she was going to go for it.
She reached out with both hands, running them through Luna’s luxurious blond hair down either side of her face - Were her cheeks turning red because she was blushing, or just because she too was now getting cold? - then she placed one hand gently on the back of Luna’s neck and began to give her small scritches - because that was the way she would want to be touched. She then nuzzled her neck and her shoulder, barely resisting the urge to kiss the bare skin around the straps of Luna’s dress. It wasn’t until after she’d done it if her nose were longer and more pointed, the nuzzling would have been similar to the attack of the African Spearnose. Giggling, she knew that as fun as it was to imitate a dragon, harming Luna was the furthest thing from her mind. Just when she could feel Luna almost start to purr from the nuzzles and the strokes, she decided she could wait no longer and gently pulled Luna closer, pressing their lips together. The kiss was chaste at first, almost depressingly so, but when Ginny realized that Luna wasn’t retreating, and was even starting to kiss her back, she went further. She sent her tongue into Luna’s mouth in search of its partner, enjoying every sensation as Luna’s hands started to caress up and down her sides and back, gasping as she started to reach under the bottom of her T-shirt.
Finally, Ginny realized that she would rather like to be able to breathe, and with a twinge of regret, she stopped kissing the girl standing opposite her. Luna grinned, looking more than a little flushed. (Ginny was sure now that it was not the cold that was painting Luna’s cheeks red.) There was a beat of silence before Luna said words that Ginny hadn’t known she’d been waiting to hear. “If you’re cold, I could show you my room.”
Ginny wasn’t quite sure what to make of this - other than that it was something she wanted to happen with every fiber of her being, and that temperature was at the very bottom of the list of reasons why. Luna did not seem like the sort of person who would simply invite Ginny up to her room for some sort of escapades, even after an impromptu make-out session in her magical refrigerator. In fact, it was entirely possible that Luna, as innocent as she seemed to be, wasn’t aware of how Ginny was interpreting her suggestion. Nevertheless, Ginny followed Luna out of the room back towards the house, more careful this time to watch her footing on the icy floors - although she wouldn’t have minded the opportunity to pull Luna down on top of her again. They continued out of the farmhouse, stopping only briefly to pet the Kneazle on their way out, then in through the kitchen, and as she greeted Luna’s father, Ginny realized she was smiling with an impish grin that she’d meant to do a better job of hiding. Doing her best to avoid a conversation, trying only to get upstairs as quickly as possible, she followed Luna up the winding staircase, eagerly awaiting whatever surprises the room at the top of the tower held in store, and praying only that Luna felt the same way.
But then again, Luna always was a fan of surprises.
Pairing: Ginny/Luna
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 3,066
Disclaimer: Not owning, just borrowing.
Summary: Ginny spends the day at the Lovegoods over the summer, in awe as always at Luna's many fascinating traits.
Notes: Takes place the summer between OOTP and HBP. Had the opposite problem with this fic that I did with my last one; this was originally meant to be a one-shot, but as the beginning developped more, the second half stood alone more. So there will be a sequel upcoming, and not to spoil anything, but expect a different tone and a heavier rating. Also, 'tis un-betaed, and even if it were, all mistakes would still be mine. Special thanks though to
toxic_corn , who read parts of it beforehand, and still laughs out loud at how I accidentally wrote "wolfing down halfing down half the plate". So at least that mistake is fixed!
Ginny figured she was having far more fun helping in the garden than she had any right to. At the Burrow, helping in the garden consisted of angrily hunting down gnomes and hurling them over your shoulder in a disorienting fashion. With the Lovegoods, she mainly stood somewhere out of the way, pretending to pick weeds but really just observing the proceedings with a smile, and hoping not to get bitten. She had to laugh as she saw Luna’s father bring a tray of food the likes of which she had never seen to a conglomeration of gnomes. Her family loved the Lovegoods and their many eccentricities, but she could see Fred and George hexing him for catering to the gnomes. Sure enough, Ginny watched as the knee-high creatures, beasts that they were, rejected his peace offering, one of them biting him squarely on the knuckle where he was carrying the tray. “Oh, Luna,” he called. “Would you come here a moment, please?”
Luna went running across the garden, and Ginny, curious to see what Luna was being summoned for, lollygagged behind. “Would you like me to, Daddy?” Luna asked in an airy, singsong voice.
“It never hurts to practice.
“But you’ve been blessed by the Gernumblies!”
“Oh, I’ve been blessed by the Gernumblies before. I don’t think that one liked me very much though, this bite is rather painful.”
“Alright, then.” Ginny watched, at first with bemusement, then with awe, as Luna pulled out her wand, and when she cast a spell, it began to emit a sort of blue smoke around her father’s hand. When the smoke dissipated, Ginny was shocked to see that although there was still a fair bit of dried blood on his finger, the wound had completely disappeared.
Mr. Lovegood thanked his daughter, then went inside the rook-shaped house to do something a bit further away from the gnomes he claimed to love so much. “Wow,” Ginny said once he was out of earshot.
“Oh, it’s alright. I’m sure he’ll be friends with the gnomes again the next time he’s out here. He just doesn’t understand why they bite sometimes.”
“No, not that. What you did just then. That was amazing.”
“What? Healing Daddy’s gnomie bite?”
Ginny blushed as she was forced to stifle a giggle over the words ‘gnomie bite’. “Where did you learn to do that?”
“Oh, Daddy taught me,” Luna replied as if it weren’t the big deal Ginny was making it out to be. Ginny’s mother - and her father, too, to a lesser extent - knew some basic first aid spells and care, and were trusted with gnome bites many a time parenting the Weasley children, but usually a bandage was still required afterwards; Ginny had never seen someone heal as quickly and as perfectly as Luna just had.
“That was amazing,” Ginny echoed, still in awe.
“Okay, if you think it was amazing, then I’m glad I could amaze you.” If anyone else had said that to Ginny, she would have heard it dripping with sarcasm. This was Luna, though, and Ginny wasn’t sure Luna understood the concept of sarcasm. Many of their classmates used this to take advantage of the poor doe-eyed girl, but Ginny found it to be one of Luna’s more endearing qualities, and one of the reasons they were such good friends. Sometimes it’s easy to be friends when you’re nothing but honest with each other.
“I’m glad, too,” Ginny replied, and the girls finished weeding the garden before Luna’s father called them in for lunch. The girls went inside, leaving their trowels scattered behind them, and joined him in the kitchen. It was a small room at the base of the tower, with large windows facing the back garden letting in copious amounts of sunlight. Ginny took a seat at the table with her back to the windows, figuring she’d much rather have the sun warm her back than blind her eyes. As Luna took the seat next to her, leaving the seat closest to the food open for her father, Ginny smiled and gave her friend a playful, gentle kick under the table. She giggled as Luna checked under the table to see what creature had attacked her, but when Luna saw Ginny’s toes wiggling through her sandals, she sat back up in her chair, gave Ginny a wink she wasn’t expecting, and returned the smile.
Ginny looked back at Luna with a crooked smirk out of the left side of her mouth, trying to interpret the unexpected wink, when Luna’s father turned away from the stove carrying three plates of food. “What is this?” she asked brightly, looking at what closely resembled scrambled eggs, save of course for being bright purple. Ginny asked only out of curiosity, having a strong desire to know what something was before it entered her mouth, but not out of disdain or disgust. She was rather pleased she didn’t take after her brother Ron in terms of manners, as he would take one look at purple scrambled eggs, contort his face into a look of disgust, and whiningly ask what it was, all the while wolfing down half the plate before anyone bothered to answer the question.
“Ah, dragon eggs, Ginevra,” Luna’s father replied, clearly pleased that she was showing an interest.
“Oh!” she exclaimed excitedly. “My brother Charlie works with dragons! What breed?”
“African Spearnose. Devilish creatures they are. They have the most unique method of taking down their prey. They don’t bite you see, the way most dragons do-”
“Some have these massive claws,” Luna squealed.
“Or the Horntail Harry had to fight in the Tournament!” Ginny said with such excitement that she slammed her fork down on the table and nearly sent purple eggs flying across the room. “That was scary.”
Mr. Lovegood wasn’t at all annoyed by the interruption; he lived to discuss the creatures of the magical world, whether their existence had been proven or not. “But you see, the Spearnose doesn’t do any of that. Instead, it uses its rather long and pointed snout. Some wizards think, since it has something resembling a beak, that it may be a separate bird-like creature, but it certainly has reptilian scales and the like, not to mention that it very clearly breathes fire. But - oh, what was I saying?”
“Its nose,” Ginny smiled.
“Ah yes, well, you see, that’s what it uses for its weapon. If you’re unlucky enough to be chosen for its next meal, it will simply-” Rather than using words to describe the dragon’s finishing move, he picked up his butter knife and made what was clearly a violent stabbing motion at Ginny, who happened to be seated across from him.
Ginny, surprisingly unfazed by nearly being stabbed, merely continued the conversation without breaking stride. “Have you ever seen an African Spearnose?” she asked.
“Sadly, no,” he replied, genuinely mournfully.
“Daddy has a friend in Mauritania,” Luna explained. “He’s quite interesting. You’d like him, Ginny. He brought us a whole batch of eggs just a few days ago.”
“But what if they hatch?” Ginny asked, shuddering - but only slightly - at the thought of a violent dragon with a stabbing nose living in the neighborhood.
“Oh-ho, you just keep them cold, my dear girl,” Luna’s father laughed in a way that sounded quite like Father Christmas. “Maybe Luna would show them to you after we eat here.”
“I’d like that,” Ginny replied, and she flashed the girl sitting next to her a smile that would disarm anyone not named Luna Lovegood. Luna, though, seemed a tad distracted by something shiny on the opposite wall. This was not unusual, as the Lovegoods’ house was well stocked in odd or shiny things in various shapes and sizes. Ginny loved visiting during the summer; it was always worthwhile to see what new unusual item they had found to decorate their house, or use for whatever research they were doing. Of course, she couldn’t help but smile when she realized that all Luna was distracted by was the sunlight reflecting off the metal finish of the oven.
At first, the dragon eggs they were eating tasted not unlike the chicken eggs that Ginny had eaten her entire life, but she found that once she closed her mouth and started chewing them, it was as if they melted into a buttery goodness unlike anything she’d ever tasted before. Ron would eat anything he could as fast as he could, but Ginny was much more of a connoisseur, unafraid to try anything, but wanting to savor what was in her mouth. Again, she chalked it up to better manners, and perhaps, a dash of common sense and decency.
When they were done, Luna led Ginny through the fields they had just weeded to the farmhouse out back. As Luna opened the door, Ginny smiled. They were entering a veritable menagerie of magical creatures of the non-dangerous variety. A pen of Nifflers constantly digging was on their right, and a holly tree infested with Bowtruckles on their left. When they closed the door behind them, a Kneazle that very closely resembled Hermione’s cat Crookshanks darted down the middle of the pathway and rubbed against Ginny’s ankles. “Oh, he likes you!” Luna smiled. Then, with sudden resolve, she continued, “Come, this way.”
Luna opened the door at the other end of the farmhouse, which Ginny had assumed just led back outside. What she saw instead caused her lower jaw to involuntarily fall to the floor. It was a small room, not much larger than an average-size closet, and all of the walls, the floor, and even the ceiling were covered in a sheet of blue sparkling ice. Luna closed the door behind them, and no sooner had she warned Ginny to watch her step than the redhead felt her legs slip out from under her. She instinctively reached out for Luna’s wrist to save herself, only to have Luna then fall on top of her.
It took a moment for Ginny to realize that she was enjoying having Luna’s body pressed against hers more than she ought to. When she apologized, she wasn’t sure if it was for her clumsiness or for holding Luna in place for longer than was strictly necessary, although with her on top, it was kind of Luna’s prerogative as to when they would get up.
“That’s okay,” Luna said as she stood up carefully. “The ice is rather slippery.” She was far from mean, only saying it as a statement of fact, perhaps on the off chance Ginny wasn’t clear on why she had fallen.
“Yeah, I can see that. Are those them?” she asked, pointing to a shelf with a row of extremely large multi-colored eggs. Luna nodded. “They’re big.”
“Oh yes. I suppose they’d have to be. Dragons are a lot bigger than chickens and owls. I mean, I don’t know how big an African Spearnose is, but they must be pretty big. Between the three of us, we probably only ate half an egg just now. Daddy usually just fries one up whenever we start running low, and then we save the rest.”
Ginny just smiled as Luna rambled on and on. Her eyes wandered around the room, admiring the speckled eggs, the sparkling walls, and the ice blue butterflies fluttering overhead.
“Flying azures,” Luna remarked when she saw Ginny’s gaze after rambling about the dragon eggs a few more moments. “They like the cold.”
“They’re beautiful.” Ginny gazed at them a bit longer, then turned to Luna. “Everything about you is beautiful.” There was an awkward silence - at least for Ginny, Luna was usually fairly oblivious to awkward silences, or awkwardness in general - and Ginny replayed the sentence in her mind. That was definitely not what she meant to say, something about her house, how everything she owned was beautiful. But as Ginny looked at Luna, her cascading blond hair and big blue eyes, she realized that what she accidentally said was in fact true. She looked into her eyes, noticing that they were exactly the same shade of blue as the butterflies, their twinkling reminiscent of the butterflies’ fluttering wings, and she repeated the crooked, unsure grin.
Luna smiled. “Thank you,” she said simply, clearly not finding anything unusual in what Ginny said. She visited this room nearly every day, and agreed with Ginny that it was one of the more beautiful sights; she never tired of studying the butterflies or admiring the sparkling ice on the walls. However, on this occasion, she was not fascinated by the room, she was fascinated by Ginny. Luna followed her eyes, clearly pleased that Ginny found the dragon eggs and the butterflies and the magical ice as interesting as she did. The girls were dressed in summer clothes, though - Ginny in a T-shirt and jeans that fit quite nicely over her bum, and Luna in a yellow floral-print sundress that suited her perpetually sunny disposition - and were not dressed for spending a prolonged amount of time in an oversized magical equivalent of a refrigerator.
As soon as Ginny crossed her arms across her chest and started rubbing her hands over her biceps in an attempt to warm up, Luna was standing right behind her massaging her shoulders. Ginny shivered, and she realized fairly quickly that it was not because she was cold. At first, she assumed that it was a result of surprise, but as the sensations ran through her nerves, it occurred to her that she was shuddering because she was enjoying Luna’s touch. It was soft and gentle, massaging her shoulders as she tried to warm them, the exact opposite of the touching she’d experienced from Michael or Dean. They were teenage boys, and generally speaking, they behaved as such, spending most of their time together mindlessly pawing at any body part Ginny would let them. While it was true that occasionally they’d manage to hit exactly the right spot with a more gentle touch, most of the time Ginny left whatever hiding spot they were snogging in more annoyed than anything else. There was something in Luna’s touch that illuminated Ginny, sparked an epiphany that this was what was missing from her early relationships.
With a dawning comprehension, Ginny ducked out from under Luna’s arms and turned to face her. She looked down into Luna’s eyes and gave her a hesitant bit of a smile. The smile was returned, and Ginny had to stifle a giggle as she watched Luna’s eyes begin to dart back and forth. She could tell that Luna didn’t know what was about to happen, but her nerves seemed to be remarkably under control. This amused Ginny immensely, since she knew exactly what was about to happen, yet it was all she could do to keep her heart from beating straight out of her chest. Well, if Luna was going to be so at ease with it, she was going to go for it.
She reached out with both hands, running them through Luna’s luxurious blond hair down either side of her face - Were her cheeks turning red because she was blushing, or just because she too was now getting cold? - then she placed one hand gently on the back of Luna’s neck and began to give her small scritches - because that was the way she would want to be touched. She then nuzzled her neck and her shoulder, barely resisting the urge to kiss the bare skin around the straps of Luna’s dress. It wasn’t until after she’d done it if her nose were longer and more pointed, the nuzzling would have been similar to the attack of the African Spearnose. Giggling, she knew that as fun as it was to imitate a dragon, harming Luna was the furthest thing from her mind. Just when she could feel Luna almost start to purr from the nuzzles and the strokes, she decided she could wait no longer and gently pulled Luna closer, pressing their lips together. The kiss was chaste at first, almost depressingly so, but when Ginny realized that Luna wasn’t retreating, and was even starting to kiss her back, she went further. She sent her tongue into Luna’s mouth in search of its partner, enjoying every sensation as Luna’s hands started to caress up and down her sides and back, gasping as she started to reach under the bottom of her T-shirt.
Finally, Ginny realized that she would rather like to be able to breathe, and with a twinge of regret, she stopped kissing the girl standing opposite her. Luna grinned, looking more than a little flushed. (Ginny was sure now that it was not the cold that was painting Luna’s cheeks red.) There was a beat of silence before Luna said words that Ginny hadn’t known she’d been waiting to hear. “If you’re cold, I could show you my room.”
Ginny wasn’t quite sure what to make of this - other than that it was something she wanted to happen with every fiber of her being, and that temperature was at the very bottom of the list of reasons why. Luna did not seem like the sort of person who would simply invite Ginny up to her room for some sort of escapades, even after an impromptu make-out session in her magical refrigerator. In fact, it was entirely possible that Luna, as innocent as she seemed to be, wasn’t aware of how Ginny was interpreting her suggestion. Nevertheless, Ginny followed Luna out of the room back towards the house, more careful this time to watch her footing on the icy floors - although she wouldn’t have minded the opportunity to pull Luna down on top of her again. They continued out of the farmhouse, stopping only briefly to pet the Kneazle on their way out, then in through the kitchen, and as she greeted Luna’s father, Ginny realized she was smiling with an impish grin that she’d meant to do a better job of hiding. Doing her best to avoid a conversation, trying only to get upstairs as quickly as possible, she followed Luna up the winding staircase, eagerly awaiting whatever surprises the room at the top of the tower held in store, and praying only that Luna felt the same way.
But then again, Luna always was a fan of surprises.