The Chasm

Kissing Luna Lovegood was magnificent. It was so magnificent, and Percy enjoyed it so much, in fact, that he spent most of the night considering all of the ways in which it must be absolutely wrong.



Tossing and turning restlessly in the bed she\'d once again made up for him on the sofa (he\'d insisted on it with even more zeal tonight), he went over and over the possibilities in his head. She was of age, technically, but she really was a bit too young for him, wasn\'t she? It seemed a little lecherous to be putting his lips on someone Ginny\'s age, though, he\'d noticed, she hadn\'t exactly felt inexperienced.



And she wasn\'t married, hadn\'t mentioned a boyfriend -- or a girlfriend -- but that didn\'t necessarily mean that she didn\'t have one (though, Percy did have to say, while Luna was a lot of things, she did not strike him as a liar.)



She wasn\'t his subordinate at work, but he couldn\'t be absolutely positive, could he, that she didn\'t work somewherein the Ministry, perhaps part-time, and that would be fraternization, which was decidedly unprofessional. But once again, he had to admit defeat. Luna Lovegood in the employ of the Ministry of Magic did not seem terribly likely.



At last, Percy was forced to come to the conclusion that he had enjoyed it, and that it was, by his own rigorous inspection, basically okay. There was the small issue of her eccentric behavior, but truthfully, it had begun to endear him rather than annoy him, and he was duly impressed by her magical capabilities.



After what felt like many hours of such musings, Percy was finally able to drift off to sleep. He had been so caught up in his own thoughts that he had failed to realize that he had consumed the entire glass of dreaming potion that Luna had once again left for him on the table beside the sofa.



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Percy\'s dreams, this time, were sweet. They were so sweet, actually, that he woke up with his pulse racing, sweating terribly into the pajamas that Luna had smuggled from his flat earlier that evening, with a mortifyingly sticky mess across his belly and the sheets.



Oh, for Merlin\'s sake, he thought, fumbling for his glasses and jamming them onto his face in disgust. Of course. This had been happening more frequently as of late, as he could not even bring himself to have a decent wank, but come on. One bloody kiss, and he\'s spunking the bed like a fourteen year-old. He almost Disapparated right there, taking the bedclothes with him, but instead took a couple of steadying breaths and thanked Heaven for the fact that he was a wizard. He had no idea how Muggle men handled situations like this, but he imagined it was a bit more complicated than a simple Scourgify.



Having satisfactorily dealt with the aftermath of a dream he couldn\'t -- regretfully, he mused dryly -- remember, Percy decided that he could do away with the strict rules of decorum this morning (hadn\'t he already?) and headed for the washroom.



He was halfway through sudsing his hair -- he chose something lemony this time, foregoing purposefully anything with potential aphrodisiac properties -- when he heard the door open. Luna came waltzing in, apparently unconcerned that he was wet, naked, and still a bit embarrassed, behind the curtain.



"Good morning!" she called cheerfully.



Percy covered himself with his hands reflexively and called back to her, "Miss... Luna, I\'m in the shower!"



"I know," she answered. "I heard the water running! I\'ve brought you some clothes."



"Er... thank you; I\'m just about finished, and then..."



But Percy didn\'t get to finish his thought. The curtain suddenly pulled back, and Luna was standing there, utterly unclothed, her hair again wild around her face, staring into the shower. "Do you mind very much if I come in? I woke up feeling a bit dirty, and I\'d rather not wait."



Percy didn\'t know where to turn, so he stood there lamely, still covering himself with his hands, soapy water dripping into his eyes and making them sting. His heart jumped into his throat. He sputtered at her. "I... don\'t you think that\'s a little..."



"Inappropriate?" Luna finished, stepping over the edge of the tub and pulling the curtain closed. "No, not really this time. You\'ve been sleeping over. And you did put your tongue in my mouth yesterday. And you\'ve already seen me naked. And liked it," she finished conversationally, stepping closer to his back to catch some of the water that came over his shoulder.



Percy rubbed vigorously at his lathered-up head with one hand, squeezing his eyes shut even though she was out of his field of vision. He felt her move even closer, until he could feel her breasts lightly against his back. She leaned into his neck and inhaled.



"Lemon today," he said, his voice coming out tight and uncomfortable. He was still shielding himself with one hand, and he was desperately plotting in his head how to get out of the shower without letting her see his ridiculous erection.



"Good choice," she responded, getting up onto her toes so that her face rested above his shoulder. She leaned sideways to wet her hair, pulling it over his arm. "You probably don\'t need an aphrodisiac after last night." Percy coughed in humiliated surprise. "I think I did something wrong with the Dreaming Draught," she continued, flattening her hair down his arm as she dampened it, pressing herself more firmly against his back.



"What do you mean, wrong?" He was now scrubbing quickly at his body with a bar of soap he hadn\'t even bothered to smell, just wanting to get out of the shower and into a towel.



"Oh, I wanted it to be for sweet dreams, and I suppose they were. But mine were rather more erotic than I\'d intended. Something must have gone a little pear-shaped!" she giggled.



Percy let the shower run over his face and down his body, not daring to open his eyes to see if it was running clear yet. "Well," he gulped. "I wouldn\'t know anything about that; I didn\'t drink any."



"Yes, you did," Luna said. "I went out into the sitting room and the glass was empty. I only had half. Your dreams must have been awfully naughty! Were they about me?"



Percy decided that his shower was, effectively, finished, and he allowed himself a quick glance toward the curtain, just enough to gauge where to grab it, and then he reached out and pulled it open. Luna, however, caught him by the arm and pulled him gently, which threw him off-balance, and he slipped a bit on the wet tile, both of his arms instinctively moving to balance himself, and when he had managed to right himself, he was face-on with her, eyes open wide in surprise.



"Mine were about you," she said, raising her eyebrows and smiling mischievously as Percy stepped quickly over the edge of the tub and closed the curtain behind himself.



He immediately knotted a towel around his waist and grabbed a second from the rack on the wall, using it to rub at his hair. "Why are you always doing that?" he said through the curtain.



"Doing what?" Luna called back. She was humming to herself.



"Tricking me into... into looking at you," Percy answered, replacing his glasses on his face and methodically catching all the water droplets that were making their way down his body. Sufficiently dry, he began to dress, noting that Luna must have smuggled, along with pajamas, a set of clean clothes as well.



"Because it\'s funny!" she answered, and Percy thought he heard a slight snort of laughter in her voice. "But that time, I mostly wanted to look at you"



Percy began to close the buttons on his shirt, and he caught a glimpse of himself in the steaming-over mirror. His hair was sticking out at strange angles, and he looked ghostly pale against the dark frames of his glasses. "Why on earth would you want to do that?" he asked.



"To see if you looked like my dream," she answered promptly.



Percy started toward the door, his face hot from something other than the water. As he turned the knob, he heard her voice again. "You do," she said. He paused. "Except bigger."



Percy flung the door open and all but ran for the kitchen, not bothering to shut it behind him, his cheeks flaming and something like a laugh -- a big laugh; a Fred-style laugh, really -- building in his belly.



Safely collapsed into one of Luna\'s mismatched dining chairs (this one had a large sun painted on the seat), Percy laid his head on his arms on the table and let it out. He laughed until tears formed in his eyes and his stomach muscles burned and his skinny shoulders shook wildly. Her voice played over and over in his head -- Except bigger! -- and every time it did, he broke into fresh gales, unable to get anything even resembling a hold on himself.



He was still at it when Luna wandered in, dressed today in peach-colored robes and wearing earrings made out of what looked like acorns. He didn\'t notice her until she sat down at the table across from him and leaned down, brushing his arms with her own, which she had folded to match. Her chin was perched on her arms, and she was looking at him with a positively adoring expression.



Percy picked up his head and sucked in a breath, suddenly feeling a bit self-conscious at his lack of self-control. He managed to burst out, "What?" before another laugh escaped his mouth.



"You\'re strange, Weatherby," she answered, her expression holding fast.



Percy\'s eyes flew open beneath his glasses. "I\'m strange?" he said, struggling for composure and almost gaining it, but losing the battle on the last syllable. "I\'m the strange one?"



"A bit, yes," she answered, a smile widening across her sunny face. "About certain things. You\'re awfully funny about sex."



Percy coughed and his eyes watered further. "Funny about sex?"



"Yes."



"Funny about sex how?" he choked out, swallowing another laugh (Except bigger!) and almost instantly regretting asking the question. He knew how he was funny about sex. He was funny in that he hadn\'t had any in far too long, and he supposed he was a little funny in that it was important to him that he do it right, which didn\'t necessarily mean doing it every chance he had (not that he\'d had many chances recently, and not that he would have even noticed, really, if he had.)



"You think it\'s a rather big deal," she mused, still staring openly at him. "And I suppose it is. And it\'s okay if you think it\'s too big a deal to have sex with me. I don\'t mind, although I guess it would be disappointing. But you want to, and you can\'t really find any reason not to. Except that I think you\'re punishing yourself. And so does Fred."



Percy stopped short. "You\'ve been discussing my sex life with Fred?" He realized how absurd this question was, but it had already left his mouth.



"Well. Not exactly. I did talk with him last night, though. I asked him about what I\'m going to show you tonight, because I\'m feeling a little nervous. And he said that you were funny about things. So I told him that I wanted to have sex with you. He thought that was super funny. In fact, he laughed just like you were doing! You two really are a rather lot alike. But he told me -- this is what he said --" Here, Luna\'s voice fell into a fairly spot-on impersonation of Fred\'s, "You have a go, Luna, and tell me how it turns out. But I expect he\'s still self-flagellating, or whatever he thinks he\'s doing, so you might have to give him a jump while he\'s sleeping." Seeing the horrified look on Percy\'s face, Luna quickly added, "But I didn\'t do that, don\'t worry. You got sticky all by yourself."



Percy couldn\'t speak. There were too many bizarre things happening at once for him to assimilate them all. He was still working on the part where Luna had said that she wanted to have sex with him and hadn\'t even begun to ponder the part where his dead brother was advising her to, in effect, rape him (not that he would entirely mind, which he supposed made less like rape, and more like surprise sex), or the part where Luna was nervous about what she was planning to show him tonight, or the part where she knew about his bloody wet dream.



For a moment, they stared across the table at each other in silence. Finally, Percy just decided to be honest. "I can\'t exactly wrap my head around all of what you\'ve just said but..."



Luna raised her eyebrows. "But what?"



Percy swallowed,. Then he shrugged. And with another great gale of laughter bubbling through his chest, he threw back his head and gasped out, "I don\'t know!"



Percy was just thinking to himself that he couldn\'t remember the last time he\'d said those words aloud when Luna\'s laugh joined his, loud and clear and unabashedly joyful, and Percy wasn\'t sure exactly what happened next, but she was suddenly in his lap, her lips right against his, and they were laughing into each other\'s mouths, clumsily happy and smelling like toothpaste.



After a moment, Luna pulled away and brought her mouth to Percy\'s ear and whispered, conspiratorially, "I did it on purpose."



"Did what on purpose?"



"Added too much jasmine to the Dreaming Draught."



Percy smiled into her cheek. "I believe you. But..." he pushed her shoulders back until they were looking each other in the face. "Why?"



"I was trying to seduce you."



Percy smiled again. "I figured that much. But why;? Why on earth; would you want to seduce me? I\'m..." he let go of Luna and held his arms out to his sides in a gesture of befuddlement. "I\'m a right mess, I guess, is what I am."



Luna regarded him earnestly. "A little. But we all are, now, aren\'t we? After what we saw? And after what we did?"



Percy shook his head. "You don\'t understand. Luna, I..."



"Fred isn\'t angry with you," she answered gently. "Well. He did call you a prat, but I don\'t really think he meant it. Fred teases a lot. In any case, he loves you. I think you\'re the only one who\'s still angry."



For a moment, Percy just stared. Then he said, "George..."



"Needs you. You think you\'re a mess? You saw him."



"Because of me," Percy whispered. "Because of where I was standing. If it had been me who died, he wouldn\'t..."



At this, Luna put her warm hand over Percy\'s mouth. "We find what we\'re supposed to find. The wall found Fred. Fred found me. I found you."



"And what am I supposed to find? What sort of grand purpose is there for me? I spend one hundred twenty hours per week holed up in my office..."



Luna silenced him again. "You," she said firmly, "have to go find George. He\'s gotten himself lost."



"Why me?" Percy shook his head. "He doesn\'t want me. He didn\'t speak a word to me at... at Fred\'s... he... we haven\'t spoken in a long time, Luna."



"You\'re the one who has what he needs," she said simply.



"And what\'s that? What can he possibly need from me? What do I even have? I have nothing. I have a flat where I never stay; I have a job that pays me an embarrassing amount of Galleons that I have no use for; I have... I have fifteen different white shirts and fifteen different pairs of black trousers and a cot in my office and a jar of marmalade in my drawer, and that\'s my life, Luna. That\'s my life. That\'s where I\'ve gotten myself. What do I have for George? I don\'t have what he needs. He needs Fred. We all need Fred."



Percy was flushed now, and his body was hot, and his hands were shaking on Luna\'s thighs. Luna carefully took Percy\'s face between her hands and held him so that their eyes met.



"You have something that he needs. There\'s more, still, that you have to see, and then you\'ll understand. In the meantime," she said, "you\'ve got me in your lap. And I think you\'re handsome. And I think you\'re very smart. And I think you work hard. And I think you are a brave Griffyndor boy, but right now you are fragile and broken. And unusual. Very unusual. But funny. And if you\'d let me, I\'d like to touch you. I promise I won\'t break you anymore. Will you let me touch you?"



Before Percy could even say "Yes," Luna leaned in and took his glasses from his face, and as she was leaning back to place them on the table, Percy took her small waist in his hands and pulled her flush against him, nodding his head fiercely into her chest. You can\'t break if you can\'t touch, he thought, but you also can\'t fix.



She started with his face, tracing the high angles of his cheekbones. She ran her fingers over the arches of his eyebrows, then drew them back to curl through the seashells of his ears. When she drew her fingers over the line of his mouth, his lips parted into a small, gasping breath. She leaned down to brush his nose with hers, and he smiled as she whispered "Bat-nose," and it crinkled up, and she kissed him there.



When she leaned down to kiss his mouth, he touched her back: her cool, graceful neck, her still-damp hair, the willowy lines of her arms, moving slowly and deliberately, afraid she was going to start to shimmer and fade like one of George\'s memories.



But she didn\'t fade. Instead, her very warm, very solid fingers moved to his chest and began undoing the buttons there, and when she slid his shirt from his shoulders, he didn\'t even complain when it hit the floor.



She kissed a path across his chest. On his collarbone, she drew a butterfly with one featherlight fingertip. Her palms ran over his skin, heat rising behind them as they went. He let her learn his body, count his ribs, take each of his fingers into her mouth. When the breeze from the window came through, he shivered at the coolness where her lips had been.



She listened. When she heard his breath catch, she repeated what she had just done. She watched. When his eyelids fluttered, she squeezed wherever her hands lay, reminding him that she was real, and that this was happening, and that it was okay.



Percy brought his hands to her buttons and worked, his fingers quick and efficient. When her robes joined his shirt, he noticed, with a smile, that what she was wearing underneath this time was not nearly as complicated as what she had had on before, and he sighed softly in relief. She leaned forward and whispered against him, "I didn\'t think you\'d mind if I didn\'t wear my pretty ones."



As he unhooked her blue, cotton bra, he whispered back, "Not at all." The fabric fell away, and Luna leaned into him, her breasts bare, and he brought his hands up to feel the weight of them. She kissed the hollow of his throat and paused to feel his pulse against her tongue.



She slid back across his lap and unbuckled his belt, and Percy\'s lip caught between his teeth when she pulled it aside. The button was next, and then his zip, and he lifted his bottom to let her guide the rest of his clothing to the floor.



Naked now underneath her, he could feel her heat through her cotton knickers, patterned with purple and orange stars, ruffled at the elastic. With one finger, he gently pushed them aside, and what he felt made him gasp. He wasn\'t sure what he had been expecting, but it wasn\'t this. She was hot, so hot that she felt dangerous, and gorgeously, beautifully, amazingly slippery.



"Oh..." he said, his mouth opening against her skin. Then, stupidly, "Did you...?"



She giggled. "No. I didn\'t use any sex-magic, Bat-nose. That\'s all me. That\'s what you did." Then Luna lifted her hips from him, drew up her knees, and slid her knickers to the floor.



Settling back into his lap, she pulled up tightly against him, drawing her heat up his entire length, then back again, slow, so slow, so maddeningly, achingly slow.



When she put space back between them, he brought his hand forward and slid first one, then two, then three fingers inside of her, drawing small circles with his thumb that made her arch her back and brush her hair against his knees. She sighed, and it sounded so lovely that he had to open his eyes, had to see, and so he did, staring right into her hazy face, which stared back with a wide-open smile and glittering eyes. The only thing that betrayed her was her fingers at his forearms, hard almost to bruising. He liked it.



Suddenly, he felt her grow tight and still, and she reached down to stop his hand. Pressing her lips against his ear, she asked him, "Do you want to be inside?"



His breath stopped. His eyelids fluttered. "Yes," he whispered back.



She lifted her hips again, so slightly, and she guided his body into hers, taking the whole of him in one slow, graceful, perfect slide. For a moment, they just sat, foreheads pressed together, breathing, holding on. She cupped his face between her palms. He held her lovely hips. Her eyelashes skimmed his.



"Good?" Luna whispered after awhile, and for the first time, her voice shook. Percy nodded. Then they began to move. She held onto his shoulders, and their bones fit perfectly into her hands. He rolled one of her nipples through his fingers, then bent down to suck. She pressed kisses into his hair. They rocked, curving into one another, finding an easy, steady, silent rhythm.



Percy reached between them, his fingers resuming their slow circles, and she shut her eyes and let him take her over the edge with a sigh, a dreamy "Oh, goodness, oh..." and her head fell back.



He leaned in to kiss her throat as her muscles clenched around him, and her hips jerked suddenly, and then there he was, coming inside of her with a gasp and a low groan that vibrated through both their bodies. He clutched at her like he was drowning, and she wound her fingers through his hair, whispering "Lovely, lovely, lovely," whispering, "How does it feel to be alive?"