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It was a normal summer's day. The sky was bright, birds were singing, the usual cliche.
The only unusual thing about this particular summer's day was the sombre look on Ginny Weasley's face as she glanced at one Harry Potter.
It didn't take an idiot to realize he was on the process of being broken up with.
Ginny had never thought this day would ever come. Really, she could imagine the pure betrayal in her six year old self's eyes at even thinking of breaking up with the "Boy-Who-Lived."
To be fair, her six year old self hadn't thought there would be another war either; something that she would be in the crosslines of, parents unable to shelter her no matter how much they wished they could.
She sighed, gazing up into the sky, absently noting that the clouds looked exactly like one of the dragon's she had seen on a visit to Charlie's dragon reserve. She made a mental note to Luna, certain that she would devine some mysterious meaning out of the entire thing.
She glanced back at the equally contemplative human being beside him.
'Harry,' Ginny said hesitantly, placing a hand on Harry's arm. 'I don't think we show see each other any more.'
Not the smoothest breakup line ever, but it would do, she thought, cringing.
To her surprise, Harry didn't seem as devastated as she thought he would be, instead looking as if he saw that coming all along. 'Can I ask why, though?' he asked, a twinkle in his eyes. 'You couldn't handle my handsome charm?'
'Hardly,' Ginny laughed, relieved despite it all; she would hate to lose a friend from this mess. 'It's just… you're so obsessed with Malfoy, it almost feels as if you're dating him, not me.'
'Well I could say the same for you and Luna,' Harry muttered.
Except that was completely different.
Ginny didn't want to take Luna on dates, hold her hand as they talked of anything that came to mind, pretending they were carefree and innocent, a normal 17 year old couple for once. She did not want to bunch her fingers through Luna's sunflower blond hair and kiss her breathless-
Ginny's eyes widened, pieces falling back into place as she finally realized.
'Oh,' she said wonderingly, and it didn't take a rocket scientist to see that Harry had realized the truth of his own statement, tensing up beside her.
Ginny had a crush - if it could be described as a crush, though the supernova of affection when she even thought of her said otherwise - on Luna.
'You have a crush on Luna,' Harry said, flatly. Suddenly deflating, he whispered, 'But it might be a bit hypocritical of me to blame it all on your crush, I suppose.'
It took a minute but then -
'No fucking way, Potter!'
'Believe me, I don't understand it, either.'
It was a few days after Ginny's conversation with Harry, and Ginny couldn't simply look at Luna without blushing. Which, considering the fact that she was her best friend, was a lot of times.
And it didn't help that Harry was usually present and winked at her conspiringly every fucking time.
Honestly. She needed more friends.
Luna, thankfully, did not notice Ginny's discomfort around her. Or chose to ignore it, she wasn't sure. She wasn't sure which was worse, either.
Luna was currently explaining the properties of some obscure magical creature or the other - and Ginny was certain they were simply obscure, that they actually existed, Hermione be damned - her voice taking on the dreamy and soft quality that Luna always adopted when talking about something she was truly passionate about.
Ginny couldn't help the soppy smile that overtook her face when looking at her friend, feeling a rush of affection for her that was hard to ignore. Luna was going to kill her with her cuteness one day, and she wouldn't even know why there was a suddenly dead Ginny Weasley in her arms.
Her smile slid off her face as soon as she realized that she was in a sitting room with most of the Weasley clan present, some of whom had most certainly seen her distinctly not platonic glance towards Luna.
As it was, she could see Bill's smirking face across from her as he continued peppering Luna with questions, and she glared at him, her face tinged scarlet with embarrassment.
Fuck needing new friends. She needed a new fucking life.
Ginny wondered whether migrating to Sri Lanka would be a good enough escape from overprotective brothers and obnoxious friends, her scowl magnifying as Bill followed after her after Ginny's hasty escape from the sitting room towards her bedroom. She could drag Harry along with her, make a whole trip of it and finally stop him from whining about how he hadn't been to his home country in ages.
'So… Luna, huh?'
'I have no idea what you're talking about,' she said, cursing her inability to lie convincingly, if her brother's amused, raised eyebrow was any indication.
'It's not the end of the world, you know.'
Ginny stared. 'Are you really giving me the 'love who you love' talk right now? That's the saddest thing I've ever heard,' but she was smiling.
'Just saying. You could do worse,' he winked, leaving her room and narrowly missing the pillow that was aimed at him. 'Love you too!' he called out.
Ginny huffed and threw herself dramatically down upon her bed, not for the first time, cursing at her misfortune at having a bunch of invasive brothers.
It wasn't long before she heard a dreamy voice that she would recognize in an instant say:
'The Nargles have been buzzing around your head particularly loudly these days.'
Ginny paused in her action of smothering herself against her pillow long enough to realize the underlying meaning behind Luna's words; she was concerned about her. 'I'm fine, Luna,' she replied, thankful for the pillow that obstructed most of her face, preventing Luna from noticing the appreciative blush that had crawled onto her face.
Not for the first time, Ginny wondered what she had done to deserve Luna Lovegood in her life.
'Ginny,' and Ginny did look up this time; it was hard not to ignore Luna when she had genuine emotion in her emotion in her voice. 'Please tell me why you were avoiding me.'
And Luna looked so concerned and most of all hurt and Ginny simply could not stand that.
What the hell were Gryffindors for, anyway.
Which is why she looked Luna in the eyes for the first time since she had come to her bedroom. She felt her breathe leave as she took in the sight before her; Luna's hair ethereal in the soft light filtering through her bedroom, her blue eyes alight with something she couldn't - afraid - to put a name to.
Ginny was filled with such a deep desire to kiss her that it took her breath away.
It took her a few minutes to regain her barings, not going unnoticed by Luna, if her eyes were any indication.
'I might...' Ginny said, absently noticing that they had not laid their eyes off each other, neither willing to break the staring contest, the tension increasing tenfold moment by moment. 'Have a crush on my best friend.'
Luna's eyes lit up, an expression of joy, hope and pure wonder overtaking her face.
'I might have one too,' was all she said before they were moving towards each other, somehow meeting each other in the middle as they always, always did.
And Ginny, laughing along with Luna as she kissed partly chapped lips, couldn't imagine a better life if she tried.