Intervention
By FenrisWolf
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DISCLAIMER - I don't own anything related to Harry Potter, JK Rowling does…darn it.
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AUTHOR'S NOTE - PLEASE READ: A couple of my reviewers were disturbed and/or offended by the examples I chose for Hermione to use in her discussion of the parallels between Death Eater and Muggle terrorists. First of all, I have no religious stake in the debate; as my author name indicates, I am a Heathen, a follower of pagan gods; I am not 'of the book'. I chose those examples because, frankly, they are emotional issues and my readers would understand the point Harry and Hermione were trying to make, that there never is, and never will be, any excuse for condoning or submitting to the goals of fanatics, however they're phrased. I really could care less about who's right or wrong in the Palestine/Israel issue; the point is, acts of terror cannot be allowed to achieve the goals for which they're committed.
So please, stop lecturing me about who's right or wrong in the Middle East; I'd be just as happy if all the sane people pulled out of the region, put up a 100 foot wall around the fanatics on BOTH sides, and then filled it in with concrete. Then maybe the rest of the world could get on with our lives without some nutcases telling us 'God told them to kill'. In the US, such people go to jail or an asylum; in the Middle East they get hailed as great religious leaders who always seem to get their followers to do the killing and dying for them, and yes, the Jews have them, too. Sheesh.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE - Thanks to everyone for the great reviews on the jewelry store scene. I thought it a bit amusing that I received squees from some of my female readers over the ring's description, while a couple of guys thought it was 'ostentatious'. Guys, when it comes to the most important ring you can give a woman, more is better. Trust me on this one…. as the great sage Opus said on the way home from the jewelers, "Who needs a house, anyway?"
After the last couple of serious chapters, it's time for some fun again. Lots of fluff this time, girl's night in, manly talks, feelings revealed, all that good stuff…
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Chapter Nine - Conversations in the night
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The sound of squealing female voices drifting down the stairs was enough to make one of the two young men sitting in the parlor and playing chess more than a little nervous, enough so that the other young man was only losing dreadfully for a change, instead of horribly as was usually the case. "What d'you think they're on about up there?" Ron asked nervously as another especially loud peal of laughter echoed down the stairs.
On returning to the Leaky Cauldron, the shopping party had happened upon another pair of schoolmates returning from their own shopping, and when it was discovered by Mrs. Weasley that the two girls were supposed to spend the night by themselves in a room at the pub before returning home, she extended an invitation for them to stay at the Burrow instead. Neville had already returned to his Gran's home, so the two boys were now hopelessly outnumbered by the addition of Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil to the impromptu slumber party.
"No idea," Harry replied as he directed his knight to trample the pawn cowering on Queen's Rook Four. "Oh, and check."
"What was that?" Remus asked as he entered the room carrying a tray bearing three mugs of butterbeer. "Did you actually manage to put Ron into check?" At Harry's silent nod he chuckled, "You must be improving, then; didn't you say that you've only done that a few of the times you've played, and now twice in one night?"
"I don't think tonight really counts, Remus. Ron's a bit too…distracted to play well." His point was proven when Ron shifted his king in the wrong direction and allowed Harry's bishop to skewer another pawn on his crozier.
Another peal of laughter echoed down the stairs, this time recognizable as the distinctive bray of a particular bubble-gum haired auror. Ron glared at their old DADA professor as he sipped from his mug, his expression completely relaxed. "How can you be so calm?" he demanded, glancing upstairs nervously. "That's your girlfriend up there, too, y'know!"
"One of the few advantages of growing up with my…condition," Remus replied with a slight smile, referring obliquely to his lycanthropy, "is that you learn very early to adopt a certain acceptance of events beyond your control. Every day the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Every twenty-eight days the full moon rises and I turn into a maddened, slavering monster, unless I drink a concoction that's a hair's breadth away from being poison, in which case I simply become a monster…which reminds me, I need to be heading out very quickly," he added, glancing at the rapidly advancing dusk. "Moonrise is late tonight, but I don't want to take any chances…where was I?"
"You were talking about why you were so calm about Tonks getting ideas," Harry said helpfully.
"Right; well, I learned very quickly that once my little Nymph-and don't you dare tell her I called her that-makes up her mind on a subject, Taliesin and Merlin working together couldn't move her. She'll listen politely, she'll nod at your arguments, and then Nymphadora Tonks will do whatever she wants, despite anyone's efforts to convince her how absolutely insane the idea is.
"So, since I've had to accept the idea that I actually have a girlfriend, one who won't listen to all the perfectly logical reasons why she shouldn't be my girlfriend, it's not too hard to accept her being upstairs with a bunch of girls ten years her junior, doing things Circe alone knows that girls do at slumber parties." He shrugged and shared a mile with Harry, who had something in common with him in the area of stubborn girlfriends. "Besides, it's kind of nice to think of them all up there, doing something so completely normal, especially with everything hanging over our heads."
"I don't think I've ever seen Tonks looking so happy," Harry offered as he studied the board in front of him. Ron's vicious response to Harry's audacity would have done justice to a Nazi Blitzkrieg, and he was scrambling to hold off the inevitable kill a few moves longer. He managed a sacrifice trade with his remaining rook, watching the two towers crumble one after the other, and then continued, "Not that she's ever been what you could call moody, but she seems…" When he couldn't find the words, he tried to think how Hermione might describe it. "…less brittle, I guess? Anyway I'm glad for both of you."
"Thank you, Harry, I appreciate that, and though I've said it before, let me say the same to you about Hermione." He paused for a moment, lost in thought. "Did I tell you that Sirius predicted you two would get together eventually?" he said at last, startling the young man.
Harry glanced up, shocked. "He did? When did that happen?"
"He told me last year, after your stay at Grimmauld Place," Remus replied. "He said that when he was in his Animagus form as a Grim, he could smell your scents change whenever you were around each other. It took him a while to figure out what it meant, but once he did, he said there were other signs that it was just a matter of time."
"Great," Ron grumbled as his queen decapitated Harry's king, ending the game, "Not one, but two stubborn females giving the others ideas about how to go about getting their hooks into the bloke they want. Just what the rest of us need…"
Harry was starting to get a bit irritated by his friend's crabbing. "What's gotten into you, anyway? I thought you and Luna were doing great together." Actually, Hermione had told him that the Ravenclaw girl was a little unhappy-possibly very unhappy, with her it was hard to tell-with the slow pace of the physical part of their relationship. Hermione had become almost as close of friends with Luna as she was with Ginny in spite of her quirkiness, and she'd asked Harry to sound out his best mate as to what the source of the problem was.
Having a chat with Ron about relationships was not high on Harry's list of things he would enjoy doing, but he decided that if was willing to go into life-or-death situations for the sake of the friends he loved, he should be able to stomach a little self-inflicted embarrassment. He waited as his friend restored and rearranged the chess pieces before asking again. "Come on, Ron, you were after me the beginning of the summer to talk about what was bothering me; now it's your turn."
"Why should I?" Ron grumbled. "You never did talk to me, if I remember right, you just stayed all dark and broody until Herms snapped you out of it."
"Well, if you want to talk to her instead, I can get her," Harry replied, moving as if to stand. "Just don't expect her to use the same methods on you that she did on me, okay?"
"Harry, mate, don't say things like that," Ron groaned, a look of horror on his face. "Bad enough I have to think about the two of you going at it all the time; now I have to try and scrub that image out from behind my eyes! Argh!"
"You don't think Hermione's pretty enough, is that it?" Harry asked, pretending to be affronted, figuring that if he got his friend loosened up a bit it would be easier to talk to him.
"Of course she's pretty, in a bossy-know-it-all sort of way, but Harry, I think Ginny is pretty, that doesn't mean I want to think about shagging her-Argh! There's another one!" He made a great show of grinding the heels of his palms into his eyes, and then grinned. "Seriously, mate, Hermione really is like a sister to me, even more so now that Mum made it official, and no matter what slime like Malfoy might say, Weasleys do not go about shagging their siblings!"
Harry shrugged and grinned. "Well, that's a relief, I admit, but you know what that means; if you don't talk to me, they're going to team up on you and make you talk to them. Girls seem to be into teamwork on things like that, in case you haven't noticed. So, what's the trouble?"
Suddenly the sound of the Wizarding Wireless blared from upstairs with the eclectic sounds of the Weird Sisters, followed by more feminine shrieks. Ron glanced upwards and seemed to make a decision. "Come on, let's go for a walk."
Harry glanced over at the last of the Marauders. "Anything you need before we go?" he asked.
Remus waved him away with a small gesture of his mug. "I'm fine; you two go have your chat, I need to get moving anyway."
Harry and Ron nodded. "Thanks, Remus," Harry added, which earned another dismissive wave.
"It's no trouble; now, get going!"
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The slumber party was in full swing; at Ginny's request Mrs. Weasley had agreed to temporarily expand her daughter's room by removing the wall between her room and the currently unoccupied bedroom next to hers, the one that had belonged to Bill Weasley when he was a boy. A few quick housekeeping charms had shrunk and packed away all of Bill's remaining possessions, and Tonks had conjured up several futons and a number of huge, fluffy pillows (in the same fluorescent colors she usually reserved for her hair).
The first part of the evening had been a major hen session, with Parvati and Lavender being filled in on all the doings at and around the Burrow. Hermione hd to endure another round of 'We knew it was just a matter of time!' from her roommates when they learned that she and Harry were now a couple, and commiserated with them on their own boyfriend problems. Lavender had been stepping out with Seamus Finnegan before the summer break, and hadn't seen him for two months. As her boyfriend was not the most enthusiastic correspondent, she was feeling a bit deprived of male attention. Parvati had once again lost another potential boyfriend to her clever Ravenclaw twin, and was more than a bit miffed about it. They briefly discussed the pool of potential replacements before moving on to more important topics like the latest fashions and hairstyles, which led to Lavender and Parvati separating off with Tonks to discuss how being a metamorphmagus affected her choices of conditioners.
With the girls split into two groups, the party's noise level dropped significantly, something Hermione noticed. "From what I've read, loud music is supposed to be a major component of a slumber party," she commented.
"Well, don't look at me," Ginny complained. "I have a WWN hookup (Wizarding Wireless Network), but I haven't had the knuts to keep the service open, not with being away nine months of the year. It's too bad Muggle stereos blow up in wizarding homes, we could use one."
"My mother used to own a Muggle Victrola that would work," Luna commented. "The mechanism was too simple to be affected by magic. We used to listen to it all the time, but when she died my father packed it away. I wonder what happened to it…"
Hermione cleared her throat. "Actually, I know a charm that could temporarily reconnect your brazier to the system, "she offered. "It's the one their installers use to test a new wireless. So long as we remember to disconnect it again, it should be all right…"
"Hermione Granger, rule breaker!" Tonks crowed. "Good for you! Guess Harry's starting to rub off on you, now that he's had the chance to rub-"
"Finish that sentence and I'll get every house elf in Britain to start calling you by your first name," Hermione warned, and then laughed.
With the songs of the Weird Sisters, Druids In Dreadlocks, and Dingoes Ate My Baby blaring from the brazier, the party had split into two smaller ones. On one side of the room Tonks sat patiently in a chair and volunteered (or more likely'd had drafted) her metamorphmagus powers to the cause of allowing first Lavender, then Parvati, to actually see how some of the new hairstyles they'd been considering adopting would look on them. The only catch was that the quirky auror refused to change her hair color to match, so the rest of the girls were treated to the sight of first Lavender and then Parvati sitting face-to-face with their doppelganger, the only difference being the Day-Glo hair color of the temporary twin.
Seeing a version of Lavender with pink tresses was startling enough, but seeing the same tear-inducing shade on top of Parvati's dusky features was even more surreal. "You know, that actually looks kind of neat," the Indian girl commented as she studied herself critically. She made a couple of suggestions and Tonks smiled as she obliged. The hairstyle altered into a cute pageboy bob, tapering in a cut that left the nape of her neck and then followed the line of her jaw to the front, while her mathematically precise bangs stopped just above her eyebrows.
Lavender uttered a little squeal. "That's so cute!"
"Really?" Tonks asked, sounding doubtful. "I've never tried this style myself; I went straight from long hair to my spiked look, and kept it that way except when I'm on assignment."
Lavender thought for a moment. "Well, it wouldn't work too well with the bone structure you normally favor, but that look really complements Parvati's. Here, take a look."
She handed the auror a hand mirror, who contemplated her reflection for a moment. "What do you think, Par?" she asked, turning her attention to the girl she was currently mimicking.
Parvati bit her lip as she considered the style. The way the sides were shaped accentuated her high cheekbones, and the combined with the framing effect of the bands made her eyes look even larger and more mysterious. "It's a little hard to tell with that color, but I think I really like it; it certainly would make it easy to tell me and my sister apart. Not that I mind being mistaken for her," she added hastily, "she is my sister after all, but sometimes it'd be nice to be just Parvati, and not just half of the Patil Twins." She thought for a second, and then asked, "Would you mind, just the one time…?"
Tonks shrugged and concentrated, and after a second her hair shifted from her preferred pink to a black so dark it had blue highlights. Parvati and Lavender both clapped in delight. "I am definitely going to try that when we get back to school!" Parvati squealed. "Padma is going to be annoyed that we aren't a perfect match anymore, but I don't care. Thanks for the help, Tonks, I appreciate it, really I do."
"Yeah, I know what you mean, sorta," Tonks admitted." At the younger girls' questioning looks, she flushed. "When you're a metamorphmagus, sooner or later just about every bloke asks you to help him act out his fantasies by changing into some girl he fancies. Sometimes I wish I was just Tonks, and that I'd never learned to shapeshift. That's one of the things I love about my Woofie; he's never asked me to be anything but what I want to be."
"How did you two get together, anyway?" Lavender asked, her curiosity getting the better of her. "You could have knocked me over with a feather when Ginny told me about you and Professor Lupin; I mean, no offense, but he's so old."
Tonks just laughed. "Don't let that grey hair fool you; Remus isn't near as old as he looks, and if anyone knows about looking past the surface, it's me! As for how we got together…" she paused, not certain how much the two girls were cleared for, despite their being in the same year and house as Harry. "Let's just say we were doing some things for Professor Dumbledore that had us spending a lot of time together, and we just sort of clicked. He keeps my head out of the clouds, I get him up and moving when he's feeling all gloomy about stuff, and somewhere in the middle, it works."
"Have you always known about him being…you know…?" Parvati asked hesitantly, not sure how personal she should get.
"About him being a werewolf? Pretty much; the first time we worked together it was close to the full moon, and he told me in case the job ran long and he had to be restrained. It didn't happen that time, but it has gone down that way once or twice. No biggie."
"No biggie?" Lavender gasped, slightly scandalized. "But…he turns into a crazed monster obsessed with ravaging your body!"
"Sounds like a lot of guys I've dated," Tonks drawled, completely deadpan, earning giggles from the girls as they nodded in agreement. "And like a friend of mine says, "There's three days of every month that I'm not much fun to be around, either". We make it work."
On the other side of the room, the other three girls listened to the squeals and laughter coming from the impromptu hairstyling session before returning to their own, more serious discussion. "Ohmigod, I couldn't believe it when he walked into the room!" Ginny squealed, kicking her feet up in the air. "Who would have ever thought Neville Longbottom could turn out to be a hottie!"
Hermione tsked at her. "Is that all you care about Ginny, what a boy looks like? I didn't think you were that shallow."
"Oh, pish. Like you haven't been checking out Harry in his Quidditch robes since your first year at Hogwarts."
"Ginny! We were eleven! And besides, Harry was really short and skinny back then…oops," she squeaked as both Ginny and Luna laughed at her discomfiture.
"Ha! I knew it; you are so busted, Hermione!" Ginny crowed in triumph.
"You really shouldn't tease her about it," Luna said reprovingly, though she was smiling. "Of course we have to keep an eye on the boys we like; if we don't how will we know when they're ready to stop playing with toys and start playing with us?"
"You mean like you and 'Ronald'?" Ginny teased, only to stop when she saw Luna's face fall. "Oh, drat, is my brother being a prat again? I thought things were going so well between the two of you."
"I thought so, too," Luna replied, her voice showing very little of the calm self-confidence that was part of her charm. "At first it was very sweet that he wanted to wait to have sex; annoying, but sweet. And there were lots of other things we could do…"
"You mean like really talking, getting to know each other better?" Hermione asked.
Luna looked at her blankly for a moment, and then nodded. "Oh…yes, that too, I suppose. I thought that perhaps he was just nervous, it being our first time and all, and I told him it didn't matter if it wasn't perfect the first time, because we could practice until we got it right, but that didn't seem to help at all, and now I don't know what to do…"
"Well, it's not like you're on a timetable, are you?" Ginny asked. "So it doesn't happen now, there's plenty of time when we get back to school for the two of you to, um, consummate things, right?"
To her friends' complete horror, tears started rolling down Luna's cheeks. No sniffles, no sobs, no change of expression at all to show she was crying, just the tears. They became even more disturbing when she kept talking in what for her was a normal tone of voice. "That's the trouble, you see; when we get back to school, Ronald might not want to see me any more. We'll be back in our own houses, in our own years. We won't be sharing any classes at all. I'll be back to watching him from the stands when he plays Quidditch or passing him in the halls, or seeing him with his friends in Hogsmeade. Some girl in Gryffindor will notice what a catch he is and snap him up, and-"
"Whoa, hold up!" Ginny interjected, stopping the flow of words. "What happened to your plans to seduce him next term? You seemed awfully confident that you two would be involved, why the panic attack now, when you're already together?"
Luna was silent for a minute, and then whispered, "Because I can't See it any more," she whispered, starting at her hands.
"'See'? What do you mean, Luna? You can't imagine the two of you together, or-" Hermione paused and her eyes widened as the pieces fell into place. "Oh my! Luna, do you have the Sight?"
Luna nodded miserably. "I used to See us together all the time, every time I closed my eyes, but now that we're together, everything I See that involves us is blurred, and I can't seem to bring it into focus. That's why I'm so worried, I'm afraid my gift is refusing to let me See something that will upset me."
"It doesn't work that way," Hermione said absently. "What's more likely is that the closer you get, the more overloaded the Sight becomes by your emotions. Very few Seers throughout history have been able to See accurately about themselves." She noticed the surprised look on her friend's faces. "What?"
"I thought you said Divination was all rubbish, a 'fuzzy' discipline," Ginny questioned, her eyes narrowing speculatively.
""Well, it is, really, especially the way Professor Trelawney teaches it," Hermione huffed. "But the few classes I attended made me wonder why it was being offered at all so-"
"So you went to the library," Ginny teased, and even Luna smiled.
"Yes, well, if you want to learn, you have to go where the knowledge is stored," Hermione said with a touch of hauteur, defending her obsession. "Anyway, I found out that such gifts do exist, but that they're rare, rare enough that it's unusual for a school to actually have a class on it. Most Seers are taught within a family tradition…"
"My mother died before she could teach me very much; Dad doesn't have the gift, nether do any of my other relatives, so I've had to teach myself."
"When we get back to Hogwarts I'll show you the books I found," Hermione promised. "And maybe we can talk to Professor McGonagall or Professor Flitwick about seeing what's in the restricted section, or even a real tutor…NOT Trelawney," she added unnecessarily.
Luna nodded eagerly (for her, which meant her head barely moved), and Ginny cleared her throat. "I'm glad that bit's sorted out, but there's still the little matter of what's actually going on between you and my git of a brother.
"First of all…Merlin…I don't believe I'm the one asking this…Luna, what are your intentions towards him? Are you hoping he'll bond with you the way Hermione and Harry have bonded?" She ignored slightly indignant sound coming from her sister and waited for the answer.
Luna tipped her head to one side, her gaze focusing on the distance. The tears had stopped a while ago, but the trails of their passage were still evident on her cheeks. "No, I know that our age such commitments are rare. Harry and Hermione are a special case, I know that, and I wouldn't expect Ronald to be ready for such a step. I know that a summer fling is just that, a summer fling, and that when school starts it might end, but I hoped that before it did…even without a bonding, a witch and wizard's first time should be special. I wanted my first time to be with Ronald, and I wanted his first time to be with me. That way, when it ended, we'd still have that memory to share between us."
Hermione and Ginny watched as their friend's composure crumpled, and they immediately moved into hug her between them. "Hey, hey, hey, don't give up on him just yet, okay?" Ginny said, rocking her gently. "Ron may take more than the average number of bludgers to the head before he catches a clue, but his heart's in the right place. Just give him a chance."
"Ginny's right, Luna," Hermione added, her arms wrapping around their friend from the other side. "Ron almost always means well, but Harry says if there's a way to say or do the wrong thing for the right reason, Ron will find it. And I wouldn't worry too much about someone stealing him away from you once we get back to school."
"You really think so?" Luna asked hopefully.
"Absolutely," Ginny agreed. A glint of Weasley mischief appeared in her eyes. "In fact, I think there's a way to make sure of it…Lavender! Parvati! Tear yourselves away from Tonks for a minute and come here!"
The two other Gryffindor girls rose to their feet and joined their schoolmates, a slightly miffed look on Lavender's face as she realized she'd missed out on something gossipworthy. "What's up, Gin?"
"Our friend here is worried that when we get back to school, someone in Gryffindor is going to be unable to resist poaching on the hotness that is my brother, Ron," Ginny said seriously, throwing a quelling look at Parvati when she started to giggle. "I thought we might reassure her by promising to protect her property rights when she's not around, sort of make her an Honorary Gryffindor Girl."
She turned to Luna, who had a slightly puzzled look on her face. "There's a sort of unwritten code, that the girls of the house don't do anything to interfere with each other's boyfriends, and we watch each other's backs against poachers from other houses. If we spread the word that we've adopted you, not only will no one in Gryffindor chase after Ron, we'll help run interference in case someone from another house sets her sights on him. That way you can concentrate on what's happening between the two of you without worrying about someone else complicating the picture."
"You'd all be willing to do that?" Luna asked hopefully.
"Sure!" Lavender agreed with a laugh as Parvati nodded. "It's a sacrifice, I admit, it being Ron Weasley and all, but somehow we'll survive."
"Lavender…" Hermione said warningly.
"Just kidding!" she replied, holding up her hands defensively. "Seriously, Luna, if he's what you want, who are we to say no? We'll be glad to help you protect your claim, even though you're much better than he deserves."
~~~~~~
At that moment the object of the girls' plotting was walking though the gardens with his best mate, hands thrust into his pockets. "How do you do it, mate?" he asked, kicking at a pebble in the path an clocking a garden gnome on the noggin in the process.
"Do what?" Harry asked, perplexed by the question.
"You and Hermione, how do you make it work?" Ron clarified. "I mean, you two always had something special between you; even I can see it when someone shoves my nose in it. But ever since you two…you know, got together, it's been so much stronger. It's like you two have been a couple for years, not weeks. It's kind of scary."
Harry shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck. "I think I know what you mean…I don't know just what to tell you. Part of it's probably something to do with the bonding magic; I know it's made me more aware of Hermione's feelings; it seems like there's other things going on with it, too. Nothing bad, I'm sure!
"But that's only part of it, and not the biggest part by a long shot," Harry continued. "I guess the biggest thing is trust. I trust Hermione to never hurt me, not if she can help it, and she trusts me to do the same. What she did with the Bonding made me realize just how much she cares about me and how much faith she has in me, and when someone puts that in your hands…you just can't not respond to it, can you?"
"No, I guess not," Ron admitted.
"So, when I finally understood just how much she was risking for me, how much she cared, I realized that she was someone I could share everything with, all the things I've kept bottled up inside me. And the more I told her, the easier it got to talk. I told her things I haven't even thought about in years, Ron, stuff I've kept inside for so long I'd almost forgotten it.
"And it goes both ways; she's told me things I know she's never mentioned to another soul, and I can't tell you how proud it makes me that she trusts me that much. It makes me feel like I want to do everything I can to be worthy of that trust." He smiled and clapped his friend on the shoulder. "So if you want to know how we do it, that's the key; we trust each other."
He paused and grinned wickedly. "Of course, having loads and loads of mind-blowing sex doesn't hurt, either. She makes these funny little yips-"
"Augh! Harry! Too Much Information, mate!" Ron mock groaned, shoving his laughing friend. When they both calmed down a bit, he said, "So, you think I should talk more with Luna?"
"You mean you don't talk to her? What re you doing with all your time alone with her? Wait, I don't want to know!" Harry said hastily. He thought for a minute. "Why don't you try telling me what she means to you first, maybe it'll help you sort out your head."
"You promise you won't laugh?" Ron asked, nervously running a hand through his hair.
"Marauder's Honor," Harry said, holding up his hand with his fingers crossed in the time-honored Marauder salute. "Barring matters of life or death, what you say stays between us."
Ron plopped down on one of the garden benches and leaned back, pondering his words. "I like her, Harry; I really, really like her. She confuses the heck out of me, half the time I don't have a clue what she's talking about, but she makes me feel, I dunno, like you said, special, like I want to do things to prove myself to her, and I don't have any doubts that I could do them, given the chance. And she makes me feel like I matter, just me, Ronald Weasley, Not five-older-brothers-Ron, or Part-of-the-Trio-Ron, but me, Ron. Does that make sense?"
"Yeah, it does, a lot. So what's the trouble?"
Ron sighed. "The trouble is, I can't figure it out; why'd she pick me? Sure she's a bit of a nutter, but she's also smart, pretty, funny…she could do a lot better than me without half trying. Why me?"
Harry found himself laughing involuntarily. "Sorry about that," he said when he was back under control. "Ron, don't you think I've asked myself the same question a thousand times where Hermione is concerned? You think you have baggage; I've got whole steamer trunks of it, and more to come. It near drove me crazy until I realized one thing."
"What's that?" Ron asked eagerly, hoping for some answer.
"If you've found the right one, you'll never convince yourself that you're good enough for her, and crazy as it may sound, they probably feel the same way. I figure as long as we keep trying to be as good as we think we should be for them, we're ahead of the game."
Ron looked amazed. "Wow, Harry, that's really profound."
"Well, I have my moments."
"Yeah, but it's usually only after someone's nearly taken your head off with a bludger that you have them. You're not even bleeding this time."
"Oh, Har-de-har-har," Harry said sarcastically, though he was smiling. "So, does that help at all?"
"Sort of, but I'm still some confused," Ron admitted. "You know she wants to…go all the way with me, right?"
"I believe she's made that clear," Harry said drily.
"And you know I've been dragging my feet about it," Ron continued.
"Yeah, I heard about that, too; I didn't believe it at first…I still don't think Ginny believes it…" He looked at his friend's face. "What puzzles me is that she wants to, and I'm guessing you want to, and since you're both wizard raised you're not supposed to have all the hang-ups us poor Muggle-raised types get loaded down with, so what's the problem?"
Ron sighed. He'd been dreading this part. "The thing is, you know the first time a witch or wizard have sex, it's something special, even if there's no Bonding involved. Even if you don't end up with the person for life like it looks like is going to happen with you two, it still should be with someone who's really special to you."
"Are you saying that Luna's not good enough for you?" Harry asked, his voice lowering dangerously.
"NO! No, that's not what I meant at all…bollocks, I knew I'd mess this up, that's why I haven't talked to her…Harry, she's too good for me, that's clear enough. What I'm worried about is that afterwards…after we get back to school, she'll realize that, and she'll end up regretting sharing that with me. I'd rather it never happened at all than have that on my conscience."
"Brother, you have got it bad, don't you?" Harry marveled. "This is probably a stupid question, but have you even tried telling her what's bothering you?"
"No," Ron admitted ruefully. "I want to, but you know what'll happen, I'll start to talk to her and the next thing you know we'll be talking about Snorkacks or Nargles or Whatsits; I love her like mad, but she's still Loony Lovegood."
"Ron, could you stand up for a second?"
Shrugging, Ron rose to his feet. "Sure, what for?"
"So I can do this." WHACK!
"Ow! Bloody hell, Harry, what'd you hit me for? Are you barking?" Ron cried, holding his suddenly throbbing jaw.
"I did it because I promised myself I'd deck the next bloke who called her 'Loony' in my hearing," Harry answered, cradling his equally throbbing hand. "I just thought it'd be some Slytherin git, not my best mate with a jaw like rock. Ow."
"Serves you right," Ron grumbled. "So, what do I do?"
"About Luna?"
"No, about the Easter Bunny! Of course about Luna! Ow!" he finished, as raising his voice made his jaw ache.
"Oh; well, I'd say talk to her, let her know how you feel, tell her what you're worried about, and don't let the Nargles distract you. And when you're done, if she still wants to, find a nice soft bed and have some fun. Ow." Harry concluded, still rubbing his hand.
"You're a big help. Ow!"
"I try. Ow."
~~~~~~
FINAL NOTE - I know, I was supposed to have the proposal this chapter, but Lavender and Parvati showed up and started talking, so what was I to do? Next time for sure, Harry proposes, Hermione squeals, and Ron and Luna have their talk…more to come, I promise!