Luna walked through a crowd of students rushing to dinner. A quick look around told her that what she was looking for was not there. What she was looking for would be visible in a crowd of thousands. She walked slowly over to the Ravenclaw table and took her usual seat. Looking off into space ingnoring all the "Loony Lovegood" jeers that followed her everywhere she went. The Ravenclaws were a bit more understanding than the other houses. Geniuses are always eccentric people.
She sat with her back to the Gryffindor table, pretending that it wasn't there. Her father had sent her the latest edition of The Quibbler that morning at breakfast. The teachers were being more demanding than usual today so she had no time to read it during classes. She filled her plate with food and propped the magazine up on a jug of pumpkin juice.
Her eyes were set on an article about the terrors of nargle infested mistletoe, but they weren't moving across the page, as per usual when someone reads. Her eyes were glazed over and she was lost in her own world.
Ronald Weasley. Such an interesting boy. She remembered his excellent joke about baboons from the train ride to school months ago. There was something about the innocent way he joked and the floppy thing his hair did when he walked. The way he devoured a chocolate frog in mere minutes. He stuck out his chest so that the light caught his prefect's badge. She had seen him before, but she had never really taken notice.
He was always walking around with Harry Potter and that fussy girl with bushy hair. They had all been in the same compartment on the train. The fussy girl was Hermione Granger, and Luna didn't like her very much. It wasn't that she disliked Hermione, but she was very different. She had called The Quibbler rubbish, Luna didn't think that was very fair. So many people said things like that about her father's magazine. Luna had very little patience with these people. They lacked imagination and only believed in text books and logic. Hermione Granger was one of these people, and she was obviously very taken with Ron.
Luna had been watching Ron since the train ride. She saw all those glances Hermione threw his way when no one was looking. Ron didn't seem to notice, Luna hoped that was a good sign. Luna decided that she would persue Ron. He seemed like a nice boy, even if Ginny didn't speak very highly of him all the time. He always did so well at the DA meetings, Luna couldn't resist.
She suddenly felt something very warm against her leg. She reached into the pocket of her robes and pulled out one of the coins that Hermione had made. She looked down to see the new time and date for the next meeting. Then she glanced over at the Gryffindor table to see Harry shoving his own coin into his pocket. Next to Harry was Ron. He looked thoroughly depressed about something. His hair was messy and he had a smudge of dirt underneath his right eye. She could only assume that Gryffindor quidditch practice had just taken place. Ron reached into his pocket and looked at his own fake Galleon. He stared at it with longing. Just then Ron's brothers showed up and sat down on either side, joking about something. Luna quickly turned around and looked at her magazine.
She was reaching out to flip the page when there was a sharp tap on her shoulder.
"Oh...hello, Ginny," Luna said softly.
"Hi Luna, may I sit down with you?"
"Sure." Luna moved her bag over and made room for Ginny to sit down.
"Did you check your coin?" Ginny whispered.
"Yes," Luna answered. "I'll be there...tomorrow evening."
"Are you feeling okay, Luna?"
"Of course Vigirnia, I'm fine."
"I saw you looking at him again," Ginny said as she poured herself a glass of pumpkin juice.
Luna suddenly regretted her decision to express her interest in Ron to Ginny. Now whenever they were in class and Luna drifted off, as she often did, Ginny assumed it was Ron that Luna was thinking about.
"I felt the Galleon and looked over at your table, that's all," Luna said.
"Sure, Luna," Ginny said taking a sip of her drink.
"You are right, Ginny," Luna said. "I was observing Ronald." Ginny choked on her drink and Luna shifted to face her. "Careful, I heard Umbridge was poisoning the juice."
"I'll remember that," Ginny said, looking at the glass warily, then finishing it in one swallow. "I've just never heard anything that...weird...before. Observing Ron? Try living with him."
"I think he's interesting," Luna said, turning back to her plate.
"Okay Luna, I'll see you in Herbology tomorrow morning."
"Goodbye, Ginevra."
Luna watched as Ginny walked back to the Gryffindor table. She noted the differences between her and Ron. Ginny was much more outspoken and bold. Ron had a quiet determination about him. She remembered the first meeting the group had in the Hog's Head. Ron was very quick to defend Harry when Zacharias Smith accused him of not being good at Defense. She admired that. She saw, in her mind, Ron's ears turning red. Then she saw, out of the corner of her eye, Ron get to his feet and throw his bag over his shoulder. Both he and Harry looked reluctant to rise, but a few feet in front of them, Hermione was about to collapse under the weight of all her books. Luna grabbed her things quickly and followed them into the hall. They were, without a doubt, heading to the library.
Indeed they were. Luna trailed a few steps behind them, catching bits of conversation. She wasn't really paying attention to what they were saying. She was watching Ron walk with his shoulders hunched over, frowning. She wondered what happened that made him feel so terrible. She did hear "quidditch", "quaffle", and "dropped" a few times while following. They were at the end of the corridor when Ron stumbled and looked down. Luna saw his shoe string sticking out from under the hem of his robes. Harry and Hermione walked on to the library while Ron sat his bag down to tie his shoe. Luna stopped to watch him loop the pieces of string around each other. Such a small task, to tie one's shoe, but Ron's face was very determined as he twisted the laces together. He stared down with the concentration of a person who had once found it difficult to tie his shoe.
Satisfied with his double knot, Ron got to his feet and lifted his bag to his shoulder. He walked quickly to catch up with Harry and Hermione and did not notice a quill fall out of his bag. Luna walked slowly through a crowd of passing of students to the other side of the corridor. She bent down and carefully picked up Ron's quill. It was a handsome quill, a nice gray color, mingled with black and white. It was very worn, from the looks of it, probably his favorite. She walked the rest of the way to the library looking at the quill in the palm of her hand. She wondered what Ron had written with his quill. Was it used to write Potion's essays for Snape? Did he write in his dream journal with it? Or was it reserved for games of hangman during History of Magic?
She looked up just in time to see Ron walk into the library. She hesitated outside the doors. She looked down at the quill and then into the library. Ron threw his bag into a chair next to Hermione and walked over to a shelf of books. Luna stepped into the library and caught Ron off guard.
"Excuse me, Ronald," she said. He jumped a little in suprise and turned around so quickly that the huge book in his hands narrowly missed Luna's face.
"Sorry Luna, I didn't know it was you."
"It's quite alright, Ronald," she told him with a weak smile.
"Er, did you want something?" Ron asked, raising an eyebrow at the use of his full name.
"Yes I did. Here, you dropped this." She held out the quill and Ron picked it up out of the palm of her hand. She felt his warm hand touch hers. His skin was tough from quidditch and his ring finger had a scratch just above the knuckle.
"Oh," he said smiling. "I didn't know I'd dropped it." He looked fondly down at the quill. He flipped it over and passed it from one hand to the other, inspecting it.
"Is it your favorite quill?" she asked him. He blushed a little in response and his smile faded slightly.
"Yeah, I guess it is," he answered.
"What's so special about it?" she asked curiously as he stared down at the quill. He seemed to be having an internal argument with himself.
"It's nothing," he said.
"There has to be something special about it," she said, "for it to be your favorite." He looked at her as though trying to figure her out. She saw his ears turning red. She could almost hear the gears in his head turning. Luna knew she was embarrassing him, but she wanted to know what made that quill so special. What was it that made Ron blush like that?
"If you want to know the truth," he said quietly, after determining that he could trust her, "it was a gift for my birthday last March."
"Really?" she asked. "Who gave it to you?" He blushed a little more now, looking down at his feet. He was expecting the question, but he was hoping that she wouldn't ask it.
"Hermione," he said quietly, turning back to the shelf.
"Oh," she said. Then in a voice that was much too fast and much too firm, "I have to go now, it was nice talking to you, Ronald."
She pulled her bag further up her shoulder and turned towards the door. She felt her long hair hit his arm as it flew out behind her. She walked faster than usual, finally to the door and then out into the corridor. She stopped for a moment to collect her thoughts. She had wanted to know so badly what was special to Ron, now she wished she'd never found out. Hermione was special to Ron. Maybe he did notice those glances she threw at him. The sypmathetic way she corrected him at DA meetings. The way she enjoyed dueling with him. Whether Ron noticed Hermione's attention or not, Luna did not know. Luna did know that Ron never noticed her. She could look at him for days, just watching his hair fall into his face and the expression of delight he got every Friday at dinner, and Ron would never look her way.
Luna decided that she didn't feel like returning to the stuffy Ravenclaw common room, where the slightest noise would earn you a death stare from studying housemates. She began to walk, not really sure where she was going. She heard laughter break out a few times. She wasn't sure if it was directed towards her, and she didn't much care. A trail of laughter often followed her. People just didn't understand, they couldn't deal with anything out of the ordinary. She had walked down into then entrance hall. It was too late for her to take a stroll on the grounds so she turned around and went back up the marble stairs.
She walked around aimlessly for a while, just thinking about the way Ron's ears had turned so red when he was thinking about Hermione. She wondered how a nice boy like Ron could ever like such a bossy girl. He looked at that quill with delight. He looked at the ink stains on the bottom feathers and thought of Hermione. He looked at the bent feathers on the top, from when he would rub the quill on his chin while he was thinking of what to write next, and he saw Hermione. He never saw Luna, not even when she was standing right in front of him.
Somehow her wandering had brought her to the seventh floor, and when she looked up from her thoughts she saw the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. She turned and looked at the blank wall that was behind her. The wall that concealed Dumbledore's Army. She sighed and wondered what it would be like tomorrow night. Her bag, loaded down with books, began to dig into her shoulder and she covered her mouth with her hadn as she yawned. Realizing that it would look quite strange if someone caught her staring at a blank stretch of wall, Luna turned and walked back towards the stairs that would take her to her common room. She doubted that anyone would find anything she did strange. She had walked a little when there was a ripping noise and a great thud behind her. Her bag had split and her books and wand were lying all over the floor.
She picked up her wand and stuck it behind her ear. She was reaching out and grabbing her books when loud, fast footsteps overtook her. Three pairs of feet were running towards her. One of them slowed down and grabbed her Transfiguration book while the other two continued to run.
"Oy, Loony! Come and get your book!" the boy yelled at her. She looked at the patch on his robes and noticed that he was a Slytherin. Not surprising, she didn't get this sort of thing from the other houses. They were much nicer about taking her things. At least they did it when she wasn't looking. The boy and his friends were laughing loudly and tossing her book back and forth between them. She was reaching for her wand, she was going to use a hex they had learned last DA meeting, when she heard another pair of footsteps behind her. She turned to see which book was going to go missing this time, but the person didn't try to take her possesions. He stopped and pointed his wand at the Sltytherins.
"Give it back," he told them firmly, his ears turning red.
"Or you'll do what Weasley?" the boy asked with a laugh. "If you're no better at spells than you are at quidditch, then I'm not worried." The other two boys broke into a loud rendition of Weasley is Our King. In just about any other circumstances, Luna would have joined in. It was quite a catchy tune, but she had re-written it with her own lyrics.
"Give the girl her book," Ron demanded. The boys just laughed louder. Luna didn't know what to think. Ron was defending her, but he called her "girl". Ron was holding his wand quite steady as the boy holding the book laughed louder and louder. He looked at Luna, then nodded towards the boys. She nodded at Ron, she wasn't quite sure what he was going to do, but she knew that she was going to summon her book whenever he did it.
"Impedimenta!" he shouted. Luna waited for the boy to stop moving and then took her chance.
"Accio book!"
The book flew into Luna's hand. She watched as the lead boy recovered from the jinx and turned furiously on Ron.
"Leave her alone," Ron demanded. The boy was obviously no match for Ron, and he knew it. He sneered at them and left.
"See you later, Loony, Weasel," and they started another chorus of Weasley is Our King as they walked off.
Luna turned back to her pile of books, she kneeled and started gathering them up. She repaired the rip in her bag and began to shove the books back in. She felt a tap on her shoulder.
"You dropped this," Ron told her, holding one of her books in his left hand, holding out his right to help her to feet.
"Thank you," she said politely.
"I never got a chance to thank you for returning my quill, so thanks to you, too."
"It was no problem, Ronald," she said, putting the last of the books into her bag and putting in back on to her shoulder. She lifted her arm to put her wand back behind her ear when she saw Ron looking thoughtfully at her shoes. "Is something the matter?" she asked him.
"Luna, I was just wondering...why do you use my full name?"
"Oh," she smiled a little and felt her pale skin warm with a blush, "it's a nice name." He nodded and blushed a little too.
"What were you doing up here?" he asked her as they began to walk towards the stairs.
"I was just walking, somehow this is where I ended up. What about you? Were you in the Room?" she asked.
"Yeah, I was," he said. "Harry had detention with Umbridge and Hermione was studying so they asked me to make sure things were in order for tomorrow."
"That was nice of you," Luna said as they approached the stairs. "Thank you again, Ronald. I don't usually have help when something like that happens. I appreciate what you did."
"It was nothing," he said brushing off the statement. Luna stopped walking when they reached the top of the stairs. He looked into her eyes with a hint of pity. She knew the look well. People were always taking her things, and when others witnessed it, they would get that look in their eyes. "If you ever need any help..." he said awkwardly.
"I'll be certain to ask you, Ronald. See you tomorrow evening." she smiled at him and he gave a weak wave for a goodbye. Luna turned and walked down the stairs. She didn't hear the rustle of his robes or the movement of his feet until she was almost on the bottom step. She turned and walked down the corridor towards the Ravenclaw common room. She didn't think the DA meeting tomorrow would be any different than usual. Although she hoped, just a little, that Ron would start glancing in her direction, and that maybe he would look at the Impedimenta jinx the same way he looked at his favorite quill.