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"Luna?" Ginny fights to hold back more tears at the sound of the achingly familiar sing-song brogue on the other end of the line.
"Hello stranger. Don't worry, I wasn't sleeping. Is everything alright?"
Fearing she might sob if she speaks, Ginny bites her trembling lip and says nothing.
"Give me a minute to pull on some proper clothes and I'll meet you. Is the usual place okay?"
Ginny manages a brief response, "Yes. Please. Sorry."
"Don't be silly I'll be there in 10 minutes."
Smoothing the ruffled hair of her baby son, Ginny bends down to softly kiss his cheek, wondering, as she often does, whether this is how Lily felt the night Voldermort came for Harry. Happy. Loved. Scared. A few steps and she looks into James's room. He's sound asleep hugging tight to his favorite plushie horntail. She softly closes the door and pads back into the room where Harry lies in deep slumber. She envies him, worried that she is doing that more and more these days. He's always seemed so certain about everything - a confidence he needed to fight in the war, to face Voldemort and win, but it never left him. What had originally attracted her to him now feels like a gulf between them as she feels less certain about herself every day.
She quickly pulls on a pair of jeans, an old t-shirt, jumper and boots. Moving silently through the almost pitch black house by memory, she automatically picks up her wand off the desk in her study.
"Lumos."
The faint glow shows a house equally full of love and chaos. Endless pictures of family and friends, toys underfoot and James's drawings. She scrawls a note in the unlikely event that Harry wakes while she is gone, allowing herself a brief smile at the thought of Sylvester Hooper, who made sacks of gallions overnight merely by introducing the wizarding world to the concept of post-it notes.
She walks to the front door, absently points her wand and whispers, "Alohamora."
She catches herself wincing at the sound of the locks clicking open. Ginny still wonders about Harry’s obsession about security even all these years after the last dark wizard was caught and sent to Azkaban, but she can't fault him on these things. She opens the door and slips out into the garden, taking an unconscious moment to close and lock it behind her.
Boots crunch in snow and her breath is frosty in the light cast from her wand. She looks up at the house and in her heart feels the immense weight of everything it contains. Her life, her family, her future.
This always feels more natural to her outside with only the sky above her and nothing between her and her destination.
Ginny closes her eyes... A Destination she knows so well... A Determination to see... Her... A Deliberation that has always been key to her soul...
An audible crack, a suddenly dark garden and a house left to its own dreams.
...
Light, warmth...
Ginny brushes her long hair out of her eyes and surveys the room. There are still signs of when Bill and Fleur lived here. The half full pot of floo powder beside the cold and empty fireplace. Ghostly rectangles on the walls where pictures have moved to a new home. The sofa and table are new though, as are the dozens of floating lit candles curtaining the walls.
Ginny holds her breath and watches Luna light one last candle with her wand and then turn to face her. Luna's almost white hair frames a face that still holds a deep serenity and an unquenchable spark of innocence. Ginny feels as if Luna's smile could light the whole word and when her deep brown eyes meet their shining silver-grey counterparts, she can't hold it in any longer and feels herself start to shake uncontrollably as large salty tears run wordless down her cheeks.
Luna says nothing, merely walking slowly across the room and gathering Ginny into her arms. Ginny hugs her back fiercely, almost painfully, and buries her face in the crook of Luna's shoulder, sobbing. After less than a minute she regains her self control, relaxes and eventually lifts her head, bringing her face a few inches from Luna's. Luna strokes her soft red hair and examines her face with genuine concern.
"Is this a cause for tea or whiskey?"
Ginny sniffs loudly, flicks a tissue into existence out of thin air, blows her nose and then vanishes it again. "What - it can't be both?"
"That's my girl."
Luna sits on the couch and holds her hand out to Ginny, who takes it and sits stiffly beside her, looking out the window into the cold dark night. With a brief flick of her wand Luna summons two hot Irish coffees into the waiting mugs and offers one to Ginny.
"So, what's this all about then?"
Ginny looks at her feet. "I feel so stupid being here. We've not even spoken for almost a year, it's two in the morning and yet you come here on five minutes notice to..." She fades into silence. "Why - why are you here?"
Luna tilts her head in her quizzical way. "You know why. You'll always know why. Because I'll always be here for you. Always. Like I know you'll always be there for me. Time and distance - they don't matter to what we have - what we'll always have."
Luna reaches out and lightly strokes Ginny's cheek with the backs of her fingers. Ginny bites her lip and pulls away. Luna raises her eyebrows in mild surprise and drops her hand. Ginny reaches out and takes Luna's hand in hers and squeezes it softly.
"I'm sorry - it's just that I'm... So confused at the moment."
She shuffles closer to Luna, who responds only by visibly relaxing and squeezing back. Ginny takes Luna's hand and pulls it to her abdomen, leaving it resting there.
"I'm pregnant again. It's a girl this time. Harry wants to call her Lily Luna after his mother and you."
Luna smiles brightly at this. "It's so sweet of you to do that."
"This is my life now, Luna. The kids, the house, Harry away halfway around the world half the time giving lectures on fighting the Dark Arts. I don't fly any more! I write about other people flying while my mother gives me tips on making stew and coping with uncontrolled toddler magic. I don't know how I got here or where I'm going. I love Harry, he saved my life so many times, and everything in life is so good... But there are days when I feel like I'm drowning and I just can't... I can't...."
Luna pulls her close and holds her tight for a moment before letting her go. Ginny leans against her and Luna takes Ginny's hands in hers and holds them in her lap.
"It's not just you, y'know - I hear that Neville and Hannah are getting really serious and that he might be thinking about proposing. Imagine that - another Auror wedding on the cards. You never can know what will happen in life. Even me - I might even put down roots one day and stop traipsing all over the wizarding world looking for who-knows-what. I've met this guy called Rolf - he seems really - "
Ginny cuts off her words with a sudden kiss. Their lips softly touching for a second and then moving slowly apart. Ginny looks stricken.
"Oh god, I'm so sorry, I should go..."
Luna smiles softly and shakes her head, her long mane waving gently in the candle-light.
"Don't be silly."
She closes her eyes and leans forward to softly once more touch her lips to Ginny's so tenderly.
"These things - time, people, all that stuff. It will never touch what we have, my love. Never. We've always know that this is our escape - from the school, from the war, from all the things that are out there. When you're here with me, you can always be yourself."
Another soft kiss breaks to leave them resting together, foreheads touching.
"You will always be mine and I'll always be yours."
Luna places the softest caresses along Ginny's neckline, causing her to begin trembling all over again.
"The world out there is... Out there. We have our own world in here and it will always be a place we can come to. Always."
Their lips meet again as the light from the candles dims and the howl of the wind picks up outside the frosted window.
After...
"I have to go. James will wake up soon.”
"I know, my love, but promise we'll speak again this week. We'll work out some way for you to be a world class mum and still have some excitement in your life."
"I love you."
"Light of my days - from the furthest corner of the world I know I can always come to you. My love will always bring me home."
Ginny stands and lifts her wand. "I'll call you."
Luna smiles up at her. "You'd better - and don't wait a year this time."
Ginny closes her eyes - a loud snap and she's gone.
Luna stands and stretches languidly, shaking out the knots in her hair, and smiles dreamily to herself.
A pop, light snuffed out, candles turning to dust before they hit the floor.
Outside the winter wind blows.
THE END