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Hogwarts, Ginny learned, had pretty good acoustics for singing, especially if she stood in the Chamber of Secrets, surrounded by the slowly decaying flesh of the basilisk and fat rats who gorged in the snake's closed eyes. Sitting upon a tall statue of a snake she had climbed in, Luna watched, Ginny unaware of the smile on the blonde's face.
She enjoyed singing; it was a safe haven, away from others - even if Tom was gone from her mind, his presence lingered, like venomous foam atop a still lake. Singing warded him off, especially if she used the remnants of him inside of her to sing in Parseltongue. It was a broken thing, she knew: her pronunciation was childish at best and atrocious at worst, but it made him sleep in her mind, like a tired child.
When she had woken up from her unrestful slumber, all those years ago, still fatigued like her soul had been sapped away (it had), and with Tom whispering on her ears. Moments after, Madam Pomfrey had turned on the radio (research said that playing music to recently woken people who had been under the effects of petrification spells helped them recover faster), and Tom had shut up.
That made her want to sing, and now here she stood, singing a hymn in Parseltongue that she had learned from one of the books that had been hidden on the other chambers of the place.
But it wasn't like she was alone. No, somewhere along her eleventh trip down to the Chamber - where she felt safe, warm, comfortable, the Gryffindor tower giving her panic attack after a panic attack with its clear views of the sky and laughter, constant and grating and too wide -, she had gotten caught by Luna.
It had been a coincidence, really. Ginny had been leaving the Chamber, and the Ravenclaw had been entering for her daily chat with Myrtle. Ginny recalled Luna telling her this, and yet she had been stupid enough to forget.
"Is that the entrance of the Chamber?" Luna asked, blinking owlishly. "You can speak Parseltongue?"
"Little." Her voice had sounded husky, too tired from singing her heart out to calm down Tom. She stepped out of the entrance, and hissed too softly to close it, magic promptly obeying her command, and Ginny thanked it. The snake that protected the door was rather temperamental; not thanking it would only give her trouble, later.
"That's interesting. May I see the inside of the Chamber one day?" Luna asked, inclining her head, and she smiled so softly that it broke down all of Ginny's new, carefully built defenses. Disarmed like a man without a proper grip wand against someone who only ever shouted Expelliarmus against their opponent, Ginny couldn't do much other than simply agree, feeling heat creep up her cheeks.
"Okay. But you can't tell anyone!" Ginny said, offering a hand, feeling magic bubble against her skin.
"Deal." Luna replied, shaking her hand with Ginny, magic forming a small bond of promise between them. If broken, they knew, consequences would be terrible.
And that had been it; now, years later, Ginny sang loudly and accompanied, researching around what once had been Salazar Slytherin's private rooms, reading his books and learning the tongue only he and his descendants spoke. Well, them, and Ginny, now.
Luna watched, sitting atop her marble snake statue, and sighed as Ginny's voice - magic-filled and echoing, waking up the Parseltongue runes on the ceiling, the purpose of which Luna still hadn't found out. She was wagering it were protective spells on the entire castle, but she would need to dig out more of Salazar's diaries to confirm it.
She knew there was a magical bonding contract between them - after Luna felt a third magical layer against her skin (one from her mother's love, another from whatever spell they had laid down on her after her mother's death, and now this), she had sent a kindly worded letter to Gringotts if they could please verify if there was a marriage contract on her name, and luck to be had, there had been one, freshly made, signed by magic itself.
Luna did not know why magic had joined them, but she wagered it was rather important. Blinking quickly, she noticed that Ginny had finished her song, and looked to her, small and far away.
"Get down here!" She yelled, voice tired, but smiling brightly nonetheless.
"One moment." A glance to the runes showed them inactivated, and Luna nodded to herself. Surely something to do with protection, she thought as she slowly started to climb downward.
When she reached the floor, it came with a small splash of water, and Ginny laughed.
"How was it?" She asked, grabbing Luna's hands delicately, even if calloused from gripping her broom too tightly for too many years.
"Perfect, as always." Luna replied, kissing her softly, and Ginny giggled, not noticing the magic that grew between them. When they separated, Ginny's face was as red as her hair.
"Are you sure? I do think that I kind of mispronounced…" She hissed a word, softly and calm, and Luna smiled. She did not understand Parseltongue at all, but it did not matter.
"Very sure." She replied, before kissing Ginny again.