Okay, FINALLY. Sorry it took so long, it's been so busy around here. Plus, it took me awhile to get something going. I was in a rut big time. This next chapter is a Ron/Luna. I couldn't neglect them anymore and I needed to start their relationship moving in that direction. SO I hope you enjoy!
Chapter 18
Ron grinned down at the blonde Hufflepuff witch, who was now giggling flirtatiously with him in the hallway. He remembered when Brynn was a first year, he was in his third year and she was just a little kid. Now she definitely was not a little kid anymore. She grew in all the right places very maturely and Ron was definitely thankful for that.
"So Ron," she whispered as she moved in closer to him. "I have the next period off."
"Really?" he asked with a grin. "What a coincidence, so do I."
"Is that so? Well, I might be heading up to the Astronomy Tower in say…five minutes." She licked her lips as she pressed up against him. "Maybe I'll see you up there?"
Ron swallowed hard. "That might be a definite possibility."
"Good. See you in a bit." She gave him a wink and a little wave before she strutted off, swinging her hips seductively, fully knowing that he was watching her walk off.
"Wow," Ron said to himself as he started to loosen his tie and slowly start to follow her. What a good way to spend his off period, snogging with a hot Hufflepuff for an hour. Couldn't really get better than that. He'd been flirting with the girls all year, just to keep his mind off certain things, but he never thought he'd actually have one of the girls come on to him so strong. It was a bit of a turn on.
He was just about to head up to the stairs leading to the Astronomy tower when he heard someone scream just around the corner. Alarmed, he turned back around and ran toward the sound of the scream, tearing around the corner as fast as he could. He stopped short when he saw Crabbe and Goyle, pinning a girl up against the wall. Goyle had his hand against the girl's mouth and Crabbe's whole body was pressed up against her. His eyes widened when he first realized who it was. "Son of a bitch," he whispered and then ran towards, wand raised.
"Stupefy!" he yelled and watched the jet of red light hit directly against Goyles back, knocking him forcefully against the wall, than falling unconsciously on the floor. Luna screamed and Crabbe flung around in fright. "Get the hell away from her or your next!" Ron yelled as he pointed the wand at Crabbe.
He slowly lifted his hands up and stepped back as he gave Ron a smirk. "Did I strike a nerve, Weasley?"
"You better bloody hell believe it," he said forcefully as he tried not to look at Luna who was sobbing against the wall. He was so mad he could very well kill this pathetic excuse for a wizard. "Get your dumb ass sidekick and get out of my face now." Ron watched him as he went over to Goyle and levitate him down the corridor. Ron didn't keep his wand off of him until he rounded the corner, before he finally ran over to Luna who was now sitting on the floor. "Luna?" he said urgently as he knelt beside her. "Are you all right? Did they hurt you?"
She shook her head as she continued to sob. "I…I'm fine."
"You're not fine, Luna, you're a mess…oh gods. Your blouse is ripped!" Ron watched as Luna pulled her tattered blouse together. "They touched you?!"
"They tried, but failed when you showed up."
He was going to kill them. He didn't care if he'd get a lifetime in Azkaban, he was still going to destroy them for putting their greedy, dirty hands on Luna. He took a deep breath as he tried to control his anger, it wasn't what Luna needed right now. "I'm taking you to the hospital wing."
She shook her head. "No Ron," she said weakly. "I'm fine."
"You have bruises on your arm, Luna," he said softly as he touched her arm.
"All I want is to take a shower, Ron," Luna said as she sniffed away leftover tears. "I feel dirty….they were going to…if you hadn't showed up…"
She couldn't finish her sentence and started to cry again as she leaned into Ron. He took her in his arms and held her securely against him. "It's okay," he said as he brushed back her hair and kissed her forehead. "I'll take you to the prefects bathroom, all right?"
She nodded her head. "Thank you."
"C'mon," he said as he slowly helped her up on her feet. When he realized she was still a little shaky, he lifted her up in his arms and cradled her like a baby.
"Ron, I can walk you know."
"Don't argue with me, Luna," he said as he carried her up the stairs. "You're still shaking like a leaf."
She didn't respond back so he figured she was fighting a loosing battle and remained quiet until they finally got to the bathroom. "You take your time, I'll wait till your done."
She nodded and made her way to one of the baths and then pulled the curtain around her to give her privacy. Ron let out a shaky sigh as he sat in one of the love seats in the powder room. What if he had never found her? If Brynn hadn't suggested going up to the Astronomy tower, he never would have been that way and Luna would have been alone. He was just thankful that he was there.
A moment later, Ron heard the curtain pull back and stood up to wait for her to appear around the corner. When he saw her emerge only in the thin cotton robe the Prefects Bathroom provided he had to bite his lip to keep from groaning.
She fiddled with the lapels of her robe and gave him a hesitant smile. "I didn't want to put my clothes back on."
Ron cleared his throat as he tried not to admire her long shapely legs. "Understandable," he managed to say. "What did you do with them?"
"I burned them."
He chuckled softly. "Also understandable." He then shoved his hands in his pockets. "Er…want me to take you to the Ravenclaw tower?"
"I'd rather not be seen like this," she said as she ran her fingers through her damp hair.
"Er…right. Oh! I just remembered." Ron then rummaged through his bag and pulled out Harry's invisibility cloak. "I forgot I still had this. He let me borrow it when I wanted to sneak into Filch's officie."
"Why?"
"Er. Just testing a new Weasley product for the twins."
"Do I want to know?" she asked with a smirk.
"Probably not." Ron opened the cloak for her and Luna gladly stepped inside, pressed closely against him. "We have to hunch down a bit," he whispered in her ear. "We're not eleven anymore."
She did as he said and Ron tried not to moan when she wrapped her arms around his waist, pressing her chest against his side. He really had to try and forget she was starch naked under that thin robe. The trip back to the Ravenclaw tower seemed to take forever to Ron. She was way too close and the scents she used in her bath filled the inside of the cloak and he was practically drugged from it.
Once they finally made it to the Ravenclaw tower, Ron was planning on saying goodbye to her there, however she asked him to take her inside. "I don't want anyone to see me like this."
He nodded. "Sure, I'll walk you to your dorm."
She smiled in appreciation and then turned to whisper the password before they both sneaked inside. Luckily, the common room wasn't too crowded, just a few younger students studying by the fire. At the steps, Ron hesitated and turned to Luna. "Um…your stairs wouldn't happen to be like the stairs in the Gryffindor girls dorm, would they?"
She grinned. "They would, but there's a little trick few guys know about." She then held out her hand. "Take it."
Ron looked at her uneasily and then at her hand, before finally linking his fingers with hers. "What does this have to do with anything?"
"Come on, Ron…you don't expect our female ancestors forbid us to have a little fun." She then started up the stairs and to Ron's surprise the stairs didn't form into a giant slide. "A boy can't come up to our dormitory unwelcome…however, if the girl is willing, all she has to do is hold his hand."
His brows lifted. "That's all? Hermione never told us that."
She laughed softly as they made their way into the seventh year girl's dormitory, which was now empty. "Probably for good reason." She stopped at the bed by the window. "This is mine."
"You going to lie down for a bit?" Ron asked as he took the cloak off of them.
"I'm going to try," she said as she crawled on top of her bed.
Ron took the quilt that was folded nicely at the end of the bed and pulled it up for her. "You should probably do a drying spell on your hair, you don't want to catch a cold."
"Good idea," she said and pointed the wand to her hair and within seconds it was nice and dry.
"Er…well, I guess I better get going," Ron said as he took a step back. "Is there anything else you need? Are you sure you don't want to go to the hospital?"
"I'm sure," she said as she smiled up at him. "Thanks Ron. You're my hero."
Ron blushed. "Oh, it was nothing, I…" His words were cut off when they both heard a pair of voices venturing nearer. He giggles and his eyes widened when he realized someone was coming. Before he could even work on the cloak, Luna grabbed him by the shirt and yanked him onto the bed, before closing the curtains around them both. "Luna, what…"
"Shh!" she whispered as the intruders walked into the room. "We'll wait till they leave, okay?"
He rolled his eyes as he collapsed his head on Luna's pillow. This was just great. "Luna," he whispered. "I can just…"
Luna didn't let him finish and slapped her hand over his mouth. "Luna?" a girl said from outside the curtain. "You in there?"
Luna gave him a hard look before removing her hand and peaking her head out of the curtain. "Yeah, I'm here Nessa," she told her roommate. "I just don't feel very well."
"I'm sorry to hear that. Well, we'll try and keep it down."
"Keep it down? Aren't you leaving for class?"
"No, we're off this next period," Bridget, the other girl said. "We've been dying to look at this week's edition to Witch Weekly. They're doing a special on the Hottest Twenty Wizards under Twenty."
Nessa giggled as she held up the cover. "Harry Potter is on the cover. He's number one of course."
Luna had to fight the urge not to roll her eyes. "Uh-huh."
"Ron is in here, too. Your friends with him, aren't you Luna?"
"Er…" She looked back at Ron who was giving her an amused grin. "You could say that, yeah."
Bridget sighed. "You're so lucky. Friends with Harry, Ron AND Draco."
Nessa and Bridget both got on the bed next to hers. "You want to come over and read with us?"
Luna shook her head. "Thanks, but I'm good." She then flipped the curtain back in place and turned to Ron to see that he was trying not to laugh. Luna quickly performed a silencing spell then hit him with a pillow. "It's not funny."
"Am I really in Witch Weekly?"
"Great, now your ego will expand even more!"
He just laughed. "So now what?"
"Well, I for one am taking a nap and you just have to hang out until they leave. This turned out rather good anyway, because I particularly didn't want to be alone."
Ron's eyes softened. "You could have told me that, I would have stayed even if they didn't walk in."
"I've intruded on you enough as it is," she said as she got comfortable on her side of the bed.
"I'm your friend, Luna," Ron said as he lay on his side so that he was facing her. "Never feel like you are intruding on me." He tapped the tip of her freckled covered nose. "Okay?"
She blushed as she smiled softly. "Okay." She then leaned towards him and kissed him on the cheek. "Thanks, Ronald."
Ron watched her roll on her other side, exposing her back to him. "Sleep well, Luna," he said as he lifted a hand out to her. He hesitated, not sure if he should touch her, but in the end he found himself wrapping an arm around her and pulling her securely against his chest.
She moaned and snuggled closer to him and Ron knew right then…that Luna Lovegood meant more to him than he realized. What that exactly was he didn't know…but he had a feeling he'd find out soon enough.