a/n: Last chapter! Thanks for reading along! Three cheers for HMS Red Moon! *raises goblet of pumpkin juice* In an answer to one of my reviews - I wasn't sure what year this ought to be, so I'm saying its 7th… I guess.
"Maybe?!" Ron exclaimed, looking down at the lithe girl in his arms.
"Yes, maybe," Luna explained, "it can mean yes sometimes, and no sometimes."
"No, I know what it means…" he said, quietly, "… Luna, do you think I got the Piabble at supper?"
She cocked her head lightly, wisps of dirty blonde hair falling across her cheek. He brushed the hair away and felt smooth skin under his fingertips. Smooth like in his dreams.
"I was in your dream?" She whispered the question.
"I think so," he said, "I'm pretty positive, at least. It was… she said… maybe, and… smooth…"
"You're not making any sense," she said hurriedly, and then paused, "but I never make sense, so it's all right. They say I'm loony or crazy, do you think so too?"
"I keep asking if she wants to have a shag but she keeps saying maybe. She's so loony," … "I love her but she's crazy."
"Course I think you're loopy," Ron said, looking at her swinging garden gnome earrings again.
"But that doesn't mean… that… I don't like you."
Luna screwed up her face. "You look like a Fire-whip Blark," she whispered, leaning in so close her breath tickled his nose.
"What…?"
"You're all red," she translated, and kissed his nose.
She slipped out of the kitchens.
Ron ambled out after her a moment later, his cheeks rosy. Looking around, he was dismayed to find she had disappeared around a corner. Oh well, he thought, I'll talk to her later. At that moment he really wanted to talk to Dumbledore.
He reached the gargoyles and racked his brain to try and remember one of the quirky passwords the headmaster liked to put on them.
"Pumpkin Pasties?" He tried, and the stone monsters came to life and leapt aside. Not bad, he thought to himself as he stepped inside and climbed the stairs, must be my lucky day.
Dumbledore was reading the Quibbler when Ron first saw him, sitting behind his massive mahogany desk. Fawkes sat on his perch nearby, and looked at him curiously.
"Ah, Mr. Weasley," Dumbledore greeted him, lowering the tabloid, "to what do I owe the pleasure of your presence?"
"The Piabble?" Ron said weakly, flopping into an overstuffed armchair that the headmaster had waved to.
Dumbledore's aged eyes twinkled merrily from behind his half moon glasses. "What about the Piabble fish?"
"I think I was the one who got it for supper last night," Ron said, "I've been having… weird dreams."
"Well, that would make sense," Dumbledore said, stroking his long beard thoughtfully, "but I doubt you are the only student who consumed some of the fish. It is a rather large trout."
Ron frowned. "So someone else has been having dreams too?"
"It is likely," the headmaster agreed, smoothing out the crinkled Quibbler.
"So all those dreams… were bits of my future?"
"In false circumstances, yes. The content, of perhaps, conversations, are the fact, while most of the situation is the fiction. Strange thing, the Piabble."
Ron thought back over all his dreams, and frowned. "They all sort of made sense as to coming true, except one. I know that one would never happen, thankfully."
Dumbledore's eyebrows raised. "Mr. Weasley, if you truly consumed Piabble, all of the dreams which you have had in this time period are completely true, and will happen. One cannot be completely untrue."
"But it has to be!" Ron protested. "Malfoy would never… touch… he'd never-"
"Would you like to explain the dream and perhaps we can figure it out?" Albus suggested, eyes smiling.
"Malfoy - he… he-shagged-my-sister-on-the-Hufflepuff-table," Ron mumbled very quickly.
"The Hufflepuff table? Interesting. But I'm afraid it bears some truth, Mr. Weasley, or else the rest of your dreams are false as well."
"But they aren't! It was right about Luna, and the Harry and Hermione bit was bloody obvious…."
Dumbledore looked greatly amused. "Then I'm sorry to say, Mr. Weasley - your sister and Mr. Malfoy will indeed … have an interlude."
"Not bloody likely!" Ron roared, and then his ears turned pink and he lowered his head. "Sorry to yell, Headmaster, but it… no, it can't happen."
The old wizard leaned back in his chair and looked down at Ron from tired yet twinkling eyes. "Then neither can any of the others. Tell me - when did you have this other dream?"
"Breakfast," Ron said dully, going back to the incident in his head, "Malfoy came by and started talking bull, and so Gin got up and gave him a good smack-"
"And?" Dumbledore urged.
"Well, then I dozed off, and she was… you know… getting on top of him," he hissed, "and then I woke up and yelled at Malfoy to keep his hands off my sister."
"What did Mr. Malfoy then do?"
"Well his nose got this horrid shade of pink-"
"He blushed?"
"No he was disgusted… wait, maybe he… has he already done it?!"
"No, Mr. Weasley, the Piabble shows you things that have not yet occurred." Dumbledore said, not bothering to hide his smile.
"So then why would he blush?"
Dumbledore chuckled. "Perhaps Mr. Malfoy got the other half of the Piabble at supper," he suggested. "And had a similar dream?"
Ron glowered at the headmaster. "If that's the case I can still prevent it from happening."
He stood and left, in search of his sister and a despicable Slytherin.
Dumbledore chuckled again, alone in his office and looked at his loyal phoenix. "Ah, Fawkes, you and I both know that the future cannot be altered, yes?"
The fiery bird gave a little cry of agreement.
Ron raced through the halls of Hogwart's, and into the Grand Hall in time for dinner.
His sister was at the table, talking with her friends and giggling.
"Gin," he said, standing over her, breathless, "what've you done today?"
Ginny turned a fetching shade of red and her friends giggled madly. "I-I've been studying with the girls," she managed weakly, a grin tugging at the edges of her mouth.
"No you have not! You didn't -" he lowered his mouth to whisper in her ear, "didn't do anything with Malfoy did you?"
Ginny stared at him in shock. "How did you know?" She croaked.
"You DID?!" He roared, and the dining room fell silent.
"It's none of your ruddy business!" She shrieked, standing and facing him.
"The hell it isn't!" He shouted, "He's evil!"
"You flatter me," said Draco, who had, once again, seemingly appeared from nowhere. "But I'm afraid I'm not that bad."
Ron punched him in the nose.
"I told you never to touch her!"
The Grand Hall went back to its usual talkative self, only with more hushed gossip floating about than usual.
Draco put a hand to his throbbing face and glared at Ron with silvery eyes. "You can't change anything the Piabble shows you. Might as well get it over with, I said to myself."
"So you did get the fish!" Ron said, and looked at his sister, who was watching Draco sadly.
"What do you have to say for yourself?" Ron asked her, and her lip trembled.
"I didn't think I was something to just get over with," she screeched at Malfoy, who didn't bat an eye.
"Best fuck in my life, you said, midnight at the Astronomy tower, you said. Get it over with?!" She was livid, and Ron felt smug.
Malfoy raised his eyebrows at the youngest Weasley. "Pity it didn't work out, you were rather good," he confessed, then left.
Ginny sat back down at the table with her friends, stonyfaced. And Ron stood alone between the Hufflepuff table and the Gryffindor one, happy.
Finished that one, he thought, though his mind was tugging at him.
"Ronald," Luna chirped beside him, her eyes wide, "why did you do that?"
"Because it was wrong," he said, and took her by the arm and dragged her out to an empty hallway. "It was wrong on so many levels."
"But it was love," she whispered.
"Maybe," Ron said, before he could stop himself, "but I highly doubt it."
"Maybe sometimes means yes, Ronald." Luna said, her eyes twinkling.
Ron leaned down and kissed her, wanting to forget the incident with Draco and Ginny.
"Ronald," Luna gasped out, as his head ducked down and he littered kisses on her neck, "that's nice that you care about Ginny like that, but I think it could've been true love."
He pulled away and looked down at her in surprise. "You are loony. Besides, my dream never said anything about love."
"Maybe his did," she whispered, but Ron silenced her with a heavy kiss.
"Let's go have supper, then," he said, grabbing her by the hand.
"All right," she consented, "I can tell you about my dad's discovery of Nefferbautum. It's like an aphrodisiac, they say…."
They traipsed off to the Hall together, hand in hand.
Nether suspected of Ginny and Draco as being excellent actors, and neither questioned Harry or Hermione's whereabouts.
But it was better that way.
a/n:Please review.