disclaimer: situations and characters all belong to the lovely JKR. not me, her.
a/n: I present to you: the first R/Lu chapter story. [oohs and ahhs from audience] Let's hope it turns out well, haha. ;)
"You look like a man that could use another Ogden's," said a pretty barmaid, wiping clean a heavy goblet and peering at Ron from beneath long lashes.
Ron's shoulders sagged, it felt as though he was carrying a mountain troll on his back.
"If you wouldn't mind," he agreed, his voice thick, his vision foggy.
"Of course," said the barmaid, and she topped off his glass, "what is it that's got a star Keeper like you down?"
"Women." he said hoarsely.
She gave a lopsided grin. "What kind of women troubles, then?"
"I don't know," he said honestly, "but it's always women."
Ron woke and slowly sat up. His eyes were bleary and the tiniest slip of the dream was about to leave him. A barmaid and trouble with women? He wiped the sleep away from his eyes. Strange dream, he thought, and looked at the clock on his bedside table, which twinkled 'Dreadfully Early in the Morning'.
He flopped back on his Gryffindor pillow and went back to sleep.
"I doubt that its always women, soldier," a gruff looking wizard said, lowering magical binoculars and looking at a dusty Ron. "Sometimes its worse."
"I don't know," Ron said, in that heavy voice again, "I'm pretty sure it's a girl."
"In times like these, trouble with girls shouldn't be first on our minds," the wizard said, and brandished his wand. "Did you hear that?" He asked tensely.
"But I keep asking her if she wants to have a shag and she keeps saying maybe," Ron rattled on, as the wizard peered intently over the edge of the ditch. "She's so loony sometimes," Ron explained, "I love her, but she's crazy. So she says maybe and then I go to kiss her and she says 'maybe doesn't mean yes, Ronald' and its so confusing."
A flash of green light erupted next to him and the wizard crumpled to the dirt floor, dead.
Ron woke up sharply this time, and bright light flooded in from his window, playing across the scarlet and gold comforter. He'd forgotten to draw his bed curtains to keep the sun from piercing like that. Once again he strained to remember the dream sequence. Women trouble again, only with an important looking wizard to whine to, who later died.
Ron just never understood his dreams.
Swinging his legs over the edge of his mattress, he looked out at the Gryffindor dormitory and noted sadly that his dorm mates had already left. Harry had pinned a little note to Ron's bedpost, and he plucked it from its thumbtack and read it listlessly.
Ron -
went for breakfast with everyone else. You were sleeping awfully deep, we couldn't wake you. It's Saturday, so
we won't have classes. Meet you in the Grand Hall or the common room.
- Harry
Ron got dressed quickly, and then hurried down for breakfast. His stomach rumbled loudly in anticipation.
He slid into his spot next to Harry and flashed him a grin.
"Sleep well?" Harry inquired.
"Er… pretty well, I guess," Ron said, "had some strange dreams."
Hermione, who was sitting across from Harry, gave a little frown at this. "What kind of strange?" She asked.
"Voldemort strange?" Harry further elaborated, his voice kept low.
"No," Ron said, glaring at them, "nothing like that. Just weird, okay?"
Hermione raised her eyebrows and sighed. "All right. But if you do have any like that be sure to tell -"
"You and Harry, yeah, I know," Ron said, grimacing. He was still trying to think over his dreams and the conversation with them was making it slip farther and farther out of his grasp.
"Poor ickle Ronniekins," Ginny teased from beside Hermione, "had a nightmare. Should I owl mum and have her come to tuck you in from now on?"
Harry and Hermione hid their smiles and Ron shot a fierce frown at his sister.
"Shut up, you." He retorted, and then his dream was almost completely gone….
"Ginny, have I told you about Fire-whip Blarks?" A voice resounded, and Ron turned to see Luna Lovegood standing behind him.
"No, I don't think so," Ginny was saying, but Ron's dreams were flooding back to him in bits and pieces, clear as bell in his head.
"I keep asking her if she wants to have a shag, but she keeps saying maybe," … "She's so loony sometimes,"
Ron put his head in his hands.
"You all right?" Ginny asked, breaking away from her conversation with Luna. "Is something wrong, Ron?"
"Headache," he said weakly, peering up at Luna from out of the corner of his eye. Why did she bring his memories back?
"Oh, I know just the cure for that, you capture a baby troll and you sneeze on it three times and you won't have a headache any longer." Luna said sagely, and Ron saw Hermione roll her eyes and turn back to her breakfast. Harry grinned.
"No," he said, "you won't have a headache because the baby troll's mother will have sat on you. You'll be dead."
Ginny and Hermione laughed and Luna wrinkled up her nose.
Ron removed his hands from his face as the wave of dream sequences ended and reached for some toast.
Luna squeezed into the small space between he and Seamus and started on a new story for Ginny about how trout are related to the extremely rare Piabble fish and that if they could just ask the trout where their cousins were….
"Don't be silly," Hermione said after a moment, "the Piabble fish doesn't exist, it's a purely mythical creature."
Luna looked up at her with wide, silvery eyes. "I don't think so," she said plainly, "I think its real."
Hermione did not respond and merely went back to cutting up her eggs.
"Anyway, Ginny, if you eat the Piabble fish, they give you visions of your future. Mixed up ones, or so they say. Like, pieces of correct information, but in false circumstances."
"I think I should like that," Ginny said, "it would be nice to know a bit about my future."
"Well everybody thought so," Luna rattled on, "and that's why they've become so rare. And Muggles would eat them, thinking them to be regular trout, and when bits of their dreams came true called it coincidence or déjà vu."
"Really? Wow. That would make sense, wouldn't it, Hermione?" Ginny asked, her eyes laughing.
Hermione just gave a little sniff.
Harry gave her a little smile and Ron tried to pretend he didn't notice when Hermione smiled back warmly.
"Hermione," Ron said unsteadily, "if I asked if you would shag me-"
"What?!" She shrieked.
He glared at her and waved his hands at her to settled down. "Let me finish! If I did - which I'm not - what would you say?"
"No, a thousand times no!" She said, indignantly, her brown eyes blazing into a golden amber. "Where on earth did you get the idea to -"
"Never mind how I came up with it," Ron said impatiently, "your final answer is no, then? Not maybe?"
"It is no." She said firmly, still slightly ruffled by the sudden inquiry.
"Right then," he said, logging the answer in his mind. Though there was slight disappointment ebbing into his system, he was bewildered as to why he took it so well. Of course Hermione wouldn't want to shag you, a little voice said, but a bigger, more obvious voice bullied it out of the way. Maybe not now, but one day she will. Because you love her, it said smugly.
Ron grimaced. Even in the wizarding world, hearing voices wasn't a good sign.
His mission was, of course, to figure out who it was that his dream self had women trouble with. Who was it that when asked to shag said maybe?
"Ron!" Harry said loudly, waving his hand in front of his friend's face.
"What's up?" He asked, when Ron had turned to him. "What are you thinking about? And that… question?"
Ron shook his head. "It's nothing, just… just wondering about something."
Harry gave a slight frown. "If you say so," he said, "but Hermione's left a bit peeved."
Ron looked across the table at the empty spot and realized with a slight sinking feeling that he did not miss her presence at all. But he had a crush on her, didn't he? Yeah. A huge one.
"Harry." Ron said gravely, "I like Hermione, don't I?"
Luna and Ginny fell silent, looking at them in interest. Luna watched with her large, pale eyes even wider than usual.
Harry looked at Ron strangely. "Well, ye-I thought so. Why, don't you anymore?"
Ron looked at his plate and was silent for a moment, trying not to look into Luna's curious gaze.
"It… it has to do with that weird dream of mine. That question I asked Hermione, I mean. See, she was supposed to say something else -"
"Potty, Weasel." Draco Malfoy greeted them from where he had suddenly appeared behind Ginny. "It's gotten all over school that you asked the Mudblood to do the nasty and she rejected you, Weasley."
Ron looked at his plate as his ears slowly turned pink.
"How's it feel to be turned down by a filthy little-"
There was a loud crack as Ginny stood up and delivered a stinging slap to his cheek.
"Don't talk about Hermione like that!" She hissed.
Malfoy looked down at the younger girl in disgust. "What are you going to do about it, Weaselette?"
They held a steady glare between them, and if someone were to step between them they would surely be electrocuted by the pure tension their stares held.
"I'm going to fuck your brains out," she whispered, and jumped into his arms, her legs wrapping around his waist.
"You can try," Draco said snarkily, "but you'll just end up begging for more."
He threw her onto the nearby Hufflepuff table and started making love to Ron's little sister…
Ron woke up screaming, his head popping up from where it had fallen into the cross of his arms.
Harry, Luna, Ginny and Malfoy all turned abruptly to look at him strangely.
"You dozed off and had another strange dream?" Harry guessed, and Ron nodded, glaring at Malfoy.
"You," he growled, pointing a finger at the tall, handsome boy, "will never lay a hand on my sister ever!" He threatened, his eyes glowing dangerously.
Ginny's face turned very pale, and Malfoy's neck turned a light shade of pink that creeped up to his nose.
"No chance of that," he said unsteadily, "I'd never dream of laying a hand on any Weasley trash." With these words he stormed away from the table.
Ginny sat down at the table silently, looking at the oranges intently.
Luna coughed slightly. "I was talking about the Witherweather bugs, wasn't I?"
Ginny nodded, and Luna went on.
Ron stood up and announced he would be in the library, looking something up.
"The library?" Harry asked in wonder, "Looking something up? Are you sure you're feeling all right, Ron?"
"I'm fine," he said untruthfully, "just need to check something. I'll be at practice on time, don't worry."
Luna looked up at him with a lopsided smile, and bid him farewell. "Goodbye, Ronald."
Ron gave a halfhearted wave as he left for the library and when he had just passed through the great oak doors it hit him hard.
"Goodbye, Ronald."
"Maybe doesn't mean yes, Ronald."
Ronald.
Ronald.
Ron grabbed onto a window to keep himself from swaying. No, it couldn't be her. Besides, he rationalized with himself, it was just a dream…
a/n: What do you think? Questions, comments, etc, can be placed in a review. Flames,
declarations of love and worship can also be put in that handy dandy form. So do yourself a favor and give me some
reviews. ^^
Hugs,
Vanilla