Selfish

Ginny,
I’ve decided to take your advice. I’m taking the next semester off and returning home to get some rest; I’ve completely lost the passion for my work. I’ll be arrive back at my father’s house on December 23 and join you, Draco, and Vane for Christmas.
All my love,
Luna

Ginevra Malfoy read over the short letter again, hardly daring to believe that it was real. Not in the last five years had Luna left her work to join her and Draco for a holiday, despite Ginny’s protestations. Ginny and Draco joined her ridiculously large family only on Christmas Eve, preferring to have their own small Christmas with their son in their own home instead of the chaos a huge brood of cousins and siblings brought each year.

For the past five years, since she and Draco wed, Luna had declined each and every invitation Ginny or Hermione had thrown at her; anniversaries, birthdays, girls-only weekends, even the weddings of Sirius to Remus and Severus Snape to Jasmine Regans could not pull the recluse from her reports and teaching in Ireland.

In all honesty, Ginny missed her best friend, not as much physically as much as in personality. Luna Lovegood was now a stern, calculating researcher and professor of the proven facts of the magical society; it didn’t suit. Ginny had always imagined Luna as a writer, spinning her fantastical tales about Crumple-Horned Snorkacks and Moon Frogs for wizarding children everywhere, passing on the color that was her unique personality to others. While Luna could have safely been described as a rainbow of a girl, she was now a raincloud of a woman. Her friends mourned her deeply and cursed the war for washing out all the color from her.

Ginny shook those depressing thoughts out of her head, holding the letter out of the reach of her three-year-old son Vane, his platinum blond hair already long enough to partially cover his deep brown eyes. A light spray of freckles spread across his nose, and his mother gave a mock sigh of exasperation as his chubby little fingers kept trying to reach, nose wrinkling in agitation of being kept away from what he wanted.

“How about you go play with Daddy for a bit, Vane? I bet he’s tending to Buckbeak right now.” The little boy squealed and squirmed to be let down, his little legs moving across the kitchen as quickly as possible, leaving Ginny laughing at a much more leisurely pace behind him.

Despite their first meeting in his third year which resulted in a trip to the infirmary, Draco and Buckbeak now got along splendidly. Whenever the Hippogriff left Sirius, he always came either to Malfoy Manor for some pampering and playing time with Vane or to Harry’s home on the outskirts of London in the countryside to romp with his twin boys James and Michael, named after their grandfathers.

Vane stopped just in front of Buckbeak, preening as he enjoyed a brushing by Draco, and bowed at the waist. Draco stepped back as Buckbeak bowed back to the little Malfoy, earning another squeal from the child as he patted the lowered head of the Hippogriff. Buckbeak smiled as best as a Hippogriff could and butted his head gently and affectionately against the little boy’s stomach.

Ginny smiled, bowing briefly at Buckbeak and approaching him after he returned the formality. She held out his bucket, today filled with chunks of rabbit meat. Buckbeak attacked the contents happily, Ginny giving him an affectionate pat on the neck before setting the bucket on the grass for the Hippogriff to finish himself.

Draco wrapped an arm around Ginny’s waist, reminding Vane to be careful as he scrambled onto Buckbeak’s back. His normally longer shaggy hair was pulled back into a queue, a few light strands falling over his eyes. Like father, like son.

“I take it the letter was from Luna?” He nuzzled her neck affectionately as his free hand strayed to her stomach. Ginny chuckled as Buckbeak left his bucket, trotting in a wide circle to Vane’s delight, bouncing the hyperactive child.

Ginny rubbed Draco’s hand. “Yes, it was. She’s coming for Christmas.”

“Really?” Draco asked skeptically.

Ginny nodded. “Even more amazing, she’s taking the entire spring semester off and coming back for a few months.”

“You didn’t tell her about-“

“No, I didn’t, I was hoping she would come so that we could tell everybody together.”

Draco visibly cringed. “She’s going to your mother’s for Christmas Eve?”

Ginny giggled at him, rubbing his back soothingly. “It’s not that bad, Draco, and no, she won’t. You’re not the only one who hates being boxed in a house with my family. She’ll be here for Christmas, and I’m thinking about asking Ron as well. I don’t think he wants to deal with my mother’s prying for an entire holiday, not in these circumstances.”

Draco raised an eyebrow, looking down at his wife suspiciously. “And if Ron and Luna happen to get together, you had nothing to do with it?”

Ginny smiled deviously, her inner Slytherin coming out and kissed him on the cheek. “And they said you couldn’t be taught.”


The door creaked ominously, making Luna pause momentarily before swinging it open, dust swirling in the air briefly as it was stirred up. She glanced around the room, absently noting that a severe cleaning would be in order. She strode in and shut the door, creating another brief dust upset before setting her bag of furniture in the middle of the room. Her bag of clothing and work-related supplies she dropped next to the door to keep it out of the way.

Silently the professor pulled out miniature furniture, enlarging it once again and moving it with her wand to its proper place. In minutes the living room was full once again, and a quick cleaning charm had the dust obliterated from existence. She worked her way back upstairs, blasting dust and grime as she went, using Petrificus Totalus on any mice she found to be released in the woods later after she plugged up the little mouse holes. After cleaning the entire upstairs and setting the furniture up, she stacked her books on magical creatures and plants on her old bookshelf right before collapsing on her bed.

No amount of cleaning could keep her from thinking about Ron. Five years of students and faculty meetings and reports could for the most part, but not freezing mice and evaporating dust. Unwillingly her mind drifted back to the last time she had seen Ron, at Ginny and Draco’s wedding.

Luna smiled, sipping her champagne flute as the bride and groom danced their first dance, a waltz. Draco didn’t like to hang on to many of his family’s traditions, but Ginny had talked him into this one tradition for a wedding that was dominated by the Weasley family. It had taken many weeks for Ginny to get the hang of the waltz, and the results were breathtaking.

Luna smoothed down the bodice of her dress, a dark emerald corset-style with a simple sheath skirt that hugged her hips before falling straight down. It made her feel like a slimmer, taller model instead of short and curvy. Her hair Molly had French-braided down her head until right at the top of the neck, then curling the hair and draping it over the maid-of-honor’s shoulder in shiny, silky ringlets. A black velvet choker and Muggle rhinestone drop earrings completed her as Ginny’s maid-of-honor.

After six flutes of champagne, two shots of Firewhisky, and a glass of some nice red wine from Draco’s cellar, Luna was comfortably tipsy, everything in a nice golden glow, the room tilting just a little bit. She saw Ron approaching her from the corner of her all, all tall and yummy in his suit and lavender tie as a groomsman, the best man Blaise Zabini in a dark emerald tie to compliment her own dress.

Luna tried to wave at Ron, but almost fell over, giggling when he grabbed her arm to steady her. He gently pried the flute from her, causing her to pout. “I think you’ve had enough, Luna. How about I take you up to Ginny’s room so that you can take a Sobering Potion and maybe a little nap?”

“No, Won-Won, I’m fine in here. It’s really bright for the living room, though.” Luna tripped standing up and Ron wrapped an arm around her waist to keep her from falling down altogether.

“That’s because we’re outside, Luna. See the trees? They don’t grow inside the house.”

“Really? Wouldn’t an inside tree be lovely, maybe an oak, or the Whomping Willow!”

Ron sighed, setting the flute down on the buffet table before scooping Luna up bridal-style (appropriate for a wedding) and calmly walked her back inside the house. She protested, hitting his chest weakly as he walked up the stairs and into Ginny’s room.

The memory ended there, since she passed out in Ron’s arms before he left her in Ginny’s bed with a glass of water and a bottle each of a hangover recovery and Pepper-Up potion. She was so mortified that she immediately Apparated to her house and packed up to leave for Ireland. She said a quick goodbye to her father and Apparated to the point right outside of Dublin. She hadn’t been back until her father’s funeral, and even that was only for a brief two days.

Luna winced at the memory of the last time she had seen her father. He had looked bewildered (then again, he always looked bewildered) at her racing around the house, shrinking and stuffing items into a large bag. With a quick kiss goodbye on his wrinkled cheek, she had run outside to the Apparition point near the Weasley home, waving back absently when she heard him call out a goodbye to her. She had never seen her father alive again after that, and that guilt still ate away at her to this day.

Wordlessly she cast a freshening and warming charm on the bed, crawling under the covers and hugging a pillow. Already she was regretting her rash decision to come back here. No doubt Ron would, too.