Chapter Text
Few knew that Ginny Weasley adored crossword puzzles. She wasn’t particularly good at them, but she enjoyed stretching her mind muscles with her morning cup of tea. The Daily Prophet’s wasn’t too hard- she had about a fifty percent success rate with it. The muggle papers were a hit or miss for her, mostly because she didn’t have a lot of the background knowledge necessary for some clues. But never once had she finished a crossword in the Quibbler.
It was a small bone of contention in her relationship with Luna, who composed all the crosswords herself. The blonde editor prided herself on the difficulty of her puzzles and the knowledge, practice, and ingenuity it took to solve them. Ginny just wanted a few extra clues now and then, but her wife wouldn’t hear of it. She even read the clues aloud and gave commentary, trying to tempt the other witch into revealing something, anything. Luna never budged, saying that asking the teacher for test answers was nothing short of cheating. Every Sunday morning, when the Quibbler was distributed, Ginny sat down with a ballpoint pen, one of Hermione’s muggle dictionaries, and her copy of the paper. She would labor over it for nearly an hour, scratching out wrong letters, making notes in the margin, circling words that could imply a double meaning. In a decade, she’d never managed to get all the answers.
Luna and Ginny’s tenth anniversary fell on a Sunday. Like every other week, Ginny hauled the necessary supplies to her spot at the kitchen table and hunkered down for her Sisyphean task.
“Root associated with beer, ale, and snaps- must be ginger,” Ginny mused aloud.
“Home of St. Cybi’s Church and Mynydd y Twr, those are both in Holyhead! Glad I paid attention when Gwenog was giving me a tour of the muggle part of town.”
“Hue that shares a name with a character from the muggle novel Gone With the Wind… Isn’t that the terribly long film Hermione made us watch once?… What was her name?... Six letters, third one is an A… Scarlet!”
“Northern Ireland’s favorite ice cream flavor- babe, where do you find this stuff? This answer is really long, and I think it might be raspberry… something… ripple? Let’s see… It fits! Hah! Looks like I’ve got something in common with the Bats in Ballycastle.”
“Flower that symbolizes pride and splendid beauty… has an R, and then two L’s together… maybe an amaryllis? It’s my favorite and it fits, so I’m keeping that for now.” Luna tried-and failed- to hide her snort at that logic.
“Gnarled tree noted for its longevity and used in wandmaking… It’s only three letters, so it pretty much has to be yew. I never knew that about them, and that’s what my wand’s made of.”
“First professional Chaser to break the goals per hour record in their rookie- That’s me! You used me as a clue?!” Ginny asked her wife in amazement.
Luna grinned as she leaned against the counter, stirring her coffee. “No. Not a clue… I made this whole puzzle with you in mind.”
Confused, Ginny began to consider all the clues and answers. Her own name was obvious, and, like she’d already said, her wand was made of yew and her favorite flower was amaryllis. Very few people she knew actually liked raspberry ripple, so that had definitely been an odd choice of clue. And she had been a Gryffindor, so of course she loved any shade of red, including scarlet. And Luna always said that Ginny was her favorite ginger…
The redhead gasped aloud, and Luna’s grin grew impossibly wider.
“I know you’ve been trying for years to finish a crossword in the Quibbler. For your steadfast dedication, I wanted to make this one all about you and the things you love. Plus this way there’s no cheating,” the blonde joked. “Congratulations, darling, you’ve done it. Happy Anniversary!”
“How long did this take you?” Ginny whispered. “You usually make these in an hour, but this had to be way harder.”
Luna blushed. “Yeah, I can usually crank them out by putting the puzzle together with random words and then adding the clues. It was a lot harder to do when I started out with the words in mind. In all, I think it took me eight months or so. But you wanted so badly to finish one of these, and I wanted you to be able to do it without my help. If that meant creating a puzzle with ridiculously specific answers and clues I thought might trigger your memory, then so be it. You know I’ll support you in whatever you do, no matter how small, however I can. Because I love you,” she finished simply
Ginny stood and pulled her wife into a tender hug. “I love you so much,” she whispered, her voice thick with emotion. “This has been the best ten years of my life, and it’s all because of you. Happy anniversary, babe.”