What Comes From a Little Firewhisky

The stone wall looked perfectly ordinary. Anyone who would have happened to be looking towards it would then be very surprised to find Ronald Weasley kick it furiously and immediately hop backwards, doing an odd sort of shuffle as he clutched his toes in silent agony. It was, of course, not very normal to kick stone walls, even in a place like Hogwarts, where staircases moved on whim and rooms appeared upon requirement.

The latter was exactly what Ron needed, incidentally, and it was fairly obvious to see by his curious dancing that his wish hadn’t been granted. He was fairly certain he was at the right spot, having visited it several times during fifth year, which left him magnificently befuddled as to why the stone wall continued to ignore him.

I need somewhere to hide.

The nature of his request wasn’t much of a mystery to anyone who just happened to be a member of the Slytherin house. Ron didn’t quite know what had driven him to do it, but it was an unwritten law that one didn’t particularly need a reason to play pranks on Slytherins, who were generally believed to have brought said law upon themselves by means of being simply prats.

Please?

There was a low sound of stone shifting and for one hopeful moment Ron thought it had worked; moments later, with no visible movement, he realized with a sigh the wall still hadn’t complied. His toe throbbing painfully, he sunk to the floor with a grumble, leaning back against the cool stone and wondering just how he got into such a position in the first place.

The sound of footsteps startled Ron from his reverie; scrambling to his feet, he looked down the corridor, panic forming deep within his gut.

Let me the bloody hell in! he thought frantically, throwing a fist forward to bang on the wall. It was to his great surprise that his first carried through the wall, and, throwing caution to the winds, he jumped forward as the sound of voices reached his ears.

He came out in a room that could only be described as comfortable. It looked rather like the Gryffindor common room, although completely blue; a roaring fire cackled from its place and several comfy chairs were arranged around it. Ron walked slowly forward, feeling very much relieved, and collapsed into a chair near the fire, willing his heart to stop beating so rapidly.

“Hello, Ronald.”

Ron jumped, startled; he swung around in his chair, scanning the darkened room, and was very surprised to see Luna Lovegood sitting in a chair nearby with a large book in her lap.

“Luna? What are you doing here?”

“You needed somewhere to get away,” Luna said simply, seemingly unfazed by his entrance. “So did I.” She flashed him a smile and returned to her book.

Ron stared at her, gaping.

Eventually she put the book away and looked up at him. “What are you hiding from?”

“Slytherin,” Ron said automatically. “Pulled a bit of a prank on the prats,” he added in explanation.

Luna gave him a misty smile. “You played magnificent against them, by the way.”

“Really?” Ron said eagerly, warming up to one of his favorite subjects. “Harry made a brilliant catch! You know,” he said thoughtfully, “I think I heard your hat once or twice. I should get me one of those.”

“They are great fun, aren’t they?” Luna asked dreamily.

“Yeah.” Ron settled back into his chair, feeling very relaxed and immensely relieved that he had managed to avoid trouble for the time being. “Y’know, I never see you at any of the Ravenclaw games.”

Luna appeared slightly flustered for the first time. “I don’t come to matches very often,” she said, rather quickly.

Ron frowned. “You come to all the Gryffindor matches, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Luna said quietly, avoiding his eyes. Ron watched her, dumbfounded, before shrugging.

I could use a Butterbeer, he thought, licking his lips. All the events of the last hour had made him rather thirsty and he remembered with longing the case of drinks still stashed back in the Gryffindor tower. As if on cue, he looked downwards and was very surprised to find two bottles sitting on the floor below.

Luna arched an eyebrow from her chair. “Thirsty?”

“Yeah,” Ron said, grinning sheepishly. “Here - you can have the other one,” he added, offering her the bottle, feeling slightly awkward. She accepted it with a smile and they sat in silence for awhile, sipping their drinks.

“So what are you hiding from?” Ron asked eventually, voicing his thoughts of the last few minutes. He was reluctant to admit it, but he was curious, as he had no idea of what she could be avoiding.

Luna said nothing for a long while, watching him from under her long eyelashes, but just when Ron was going to ask again she spoke: “The others,” she said vaguely.

Ron smiled. “Right. Thanks.”

Luna watched him shrewdly before sighing and setting her bottle down. “Everybody thinks I’m crazy. No, don’t deny it, Ronald - I may be Loony, but I’m not exactly blind.”

“I- “ Ron fell silent, feeling suddenly very bad for every comment he had made about her. “I’m sorry, Luna. I guess we were being the real prats, then,” he said, shifting guiltily in his seat.

Luna smiled at him and brushed an hand across her eyes. “Thank you, Ronald.”

Ron winked at her and took a sip from his bottle, his mind racing. Here he was, comforting Luna Lovegood, a girl he barely knew and, curiously enough, he found he didn’t mind at all. It might have been the butterbeer speaking, but he had the sudden urge to mention something that had been lurking around the back of his mind since the end of the fifth year.

“You were great,” he blurt out, trying in vain to ignore the heat rising in his cheeks as she opened her mouth to speak. “At the end of fifth year, in the Ministry,” he continued hurriedly, “in that weird room with all the planets. It was bloody brilliant how you stunned those two Death Eaters. Wish I could have done that.”

“Oh,” Luna said, now blushing too. She raised her bottle, drinking in silence, seemingly intent on staring at the carpet between her toes, which, Ron reflected, just happened to be connected to very nice legs -

Ron choked, the Butterbeer burning in his throat. Luna rose from her seat, the concern evident in her face, but he waved her off, offering a weak smile as he massaged his throat.

Blimey, he thought worriedly. I shouldn’t be thinking about that. But even as he thought that he found himself admiring her, from the way her blonde hair framed her face, a very pretty face, actually, with entrancing eyes, and a very tempting neck, too, and below...

“Listen,” Ron said, jumping quickly to his feet. “I - I should probably go back, you know, the others are probably wondering where the hell I am and they’re going to be very angry too if they know what I did...” He said this all very rapidly, moving towards the door; Luna stood and followed, a smirk playing along the edges of her lips, until he came to the wall where the door was. “I shouldn’t have barged in here anyways,” Ron added, his heart thumping rather heatedly in his chest, and he reached backwards with his hand - to find solid stone.

Luna sighed and shook her head, her orange-radish earrings jingling rapidly. “If you really wanted to leave, Ronald, that door wouldn’t have closed itself in on you.”

“I...” Ron found himself suddenly unable to speak as Luna stepped forward, her eyes wide and innocent.

“I really like you, Ron,” she said quietly and he faintly knew that this is what Harry must have felt with Cho all those years ago.

She was getting closer and Ron did the only thing he knew would be right: he leaned forward, pulling her into his arms, and his mouth descended onto hers.

It was unlike anything he had ever imagined. She shivered slightly as his lips roved dangerously along the length of her neck and for a second Ron could see nothing but the absolutely beautiful woman in front of him who had chosen him of all people for reasons only Merlin knew. His hand snaked upwards, resting lightly on her back, and he brought her lips to his, moaning softly as her tongue darted forward. What seemed like ages later they finally broke apart, gasping for breath, and Ron rested his forehead lightly against hers, his eyes never waving from her own.

There was a soft thud and their heads turned as one, Ron smirking as a large four-poster bed appeared where there had been nothing moments before.

“Your idea?” he asked softly.

Luna smiled. “Maybe,” she said vaguely.

Ron turned to look at her, to look deep into her eyes, a thought forming within his mind. I need somebody to love.

Further thoughts were silenced as she took his hand and pulled him gently towards the bed frame.