Fire and Ice (Linny)

Chapter 3

Ginny took Luna and guided her carefully through the corridors up to the Gryffindor common room. Fully aware that they would get in trouble for it, she pulled off her own tie and sweater, handing them to Luna to throw on while quickly removing Luna's tie, hoping that the Fat Lady wouldn't question it. She didn't, luckily, and the two slipped by incident free.

"Gin, I'm fine, really," Luna pleaded, hoping to calm her fiery friend to no avail.

"No, Luna, you aren't!" Ginny scolded, her fingers to her temples as she thought, trying to process the new information. "How long?"

"What do you mean?"

"How long have they been doing that?" she shouted angrily, causing Luna to recoil. Ginny immediately felt awful and crouched down to Luna's spot in the armchair. "I didn't mean it that way, Lun. I'm just concerned." A single tear rolled down Luna's porcelain cheek as she just shook her head.

"Ginny, this isn't helping. Leave me alone," her soft voice mumbled out. Ginny's lips pursed as she stood up.

"Okay. I'll go." She walked up to the dormitory and shuffled through her trunk before finding what she wanted. A bag of frozen peas. She had gotten them for a prank she planned to pull on the Slytherins, but this was a much greater purpose.  She reappeared at the base of the stares, leaning against the doorframe as she gazed at Luna. It hurt the Gryffindor to see her hidden love in so much pain. Ginny strode over and crouched down, lightly pressing the peas to her friend's face. "That'll keep the swelling down," she explained softly. She had dealt with a wide enough variety of injuries to know the proper aids for them.

Luna silently nodded her head, not letting her eyes meet Ginny's. Ginny nodded back, holding back the tears that threatened to flood and reveal all of her emotions. Instead, she slipped upstairs and sobbed into her pillow, trying to muffle the sound. 

Ginny let the tears flow freely into the cotton. Scarlet locks curtained her face, serving as a blockade to lock in the tears that she wouldn't dare let anyone, especially Luna, see.

The redhead took a few moments to straighten herself out and hide the evidence of any tears before she rejoined Luna downstairs, who she could tell had also been crying. Neither seemed to want to admit their expression of emotion, and sat there in an awkward silence.

This isn't right. We're supposed to be comfortable with one another. Not afraid to speak, Ginny mentally scolded herself. The witched stared at the ashes of the now barren fireplace, wishing for some warmth in the room, physical or otherwise.

She pondered over her options, but decided upon the one that could cause the most damage. Oh well, she thought, rising from her chair. 

Ginny knelt so that she was eye level with Luna. She slowly removed the bag of peas from her friend's eye, meeting her gaze for a moment. "Ginny, what are you-" the question was cut off by Ginny leaning in slowly meeting her lips with Luna's in a blissful kiss that she ended after only a few fleeting seconds. Luna frowned for a second, causing fear and worry to bubble up inside of Ginny, striking panic to fire through her thoughts. The redhead leapt up from the position, immediately muttering incessantly to herself and throwing her head in her hands, terrified of the repercussions of her actions. Luna stood up and cupped Ginny's chin, slowly pulling it towards her before they were kissing again. Their second kiss was different than the first; slower, but more confident, more sure of their actions. Luna slid her hand through her Ginny's ginger mane as Ginny did the same with her own moonlit curls. They stood there in harmony for what felt like an eternity cut far too short as they separated, small smiles dancing across their pleased expressions. "Well this has been an exciting morning," Ginny remarked, a sly tone underlying the seemingly innocent note as she appeared to have regathered her senses. Luna could only nod as they left the common room to the courtyard to clear up anything that might still be in the mud.

"So, I got lucky," Ginny laughed as they strolled through the empty grounds, enjoying the quiet scenery. 

"That you did," Luna teased. "I was wondering if you had felt similarly to me romantically as I do you." Ginny shot her a mischievous grin.

"I think I answered that question upstairs."

"Oh, you certainly did."