Lose It All
by Puppy Noelle
Disclaimer: I own myself, my ideas, my many and numerous notebooks, my imagination, and a few other things [nothing worth actual monetary value] and basically other than that I own nothing. And, sadly, I own none of the copyrights, trademarks, etc that have to do with the Harry Potter world.
Description: 7th year; Despite the raging war and turmoil of the wizarding world, Ron's life finally seems to be turning around: the crush he's had on Hermione since fourth year is finally becoming more than just a one-sided thing, he becomes a much better Quidditch player, he proves himself to Fred and George, his grades finally start to improve, and he even befriends "Loony" Luna Lovegood. But as he tries to decipher Luna's mysterious ways and defend her from relentless tormenters and non-believers, he must choose between being a renowned hero alongside his two best friends and being the hero of a single lonely girl.
Genres: Romance, Drama (a little bit of everything really, but those are the main two)
Pairings: Ron/Luna, Harry/Hermione, Ginny/Neville
Rating: PG-13, T
Chapter II: Hanging Out With Luna
Although the feeling of the wind whipping through his hair as he rode his broom was probably the most comforting thing he'd ever experienced, Ron knew that he must come back down eventually. As he approached the ground, he saw Ginny and Luna relaxing on a picnic blanket with bowls full of ice cream in their hands.
He purposely landed right next to Ginny and asked, "Where'd you get that?" as he pointed at the homemade strawberry ice cream in her bowl.
Ginny grinned. "Mum made it while you were up there," she said, nodding her head toward the sky.
Ron glared at her. "Well somebody could've told me!"
Ginny giggled. "It's more fun this way," she said before teasingly hitting her brother's arm. "Now go inside and get some before there's none left."
He shouldered his broomstick and huffily walked toward the house saying, "Fine. I will then."
Once he'd gotten his ice cream, he decided to go annoy Ginny and hang out with Luna outside, so he laid his broomstick against the wall and made his way back to the two relaxed girls. Before he'd even sat down, he noticed Luna's eyes glued to him and Ginny's rolling in annoyance.
"What are you doing here, Ron? Go eat your ice cream somewhere else," his sister said, irritation clearly written on her face. He loved getting on her nerves.
"What's wrong?" he asked with mock innocence as he sat between the two girls, "I'm allowed to sit with my two favourite girls now aren't I?"
Ginny raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about, Ron?" she asked as she pointed over his shoulder at the blonde girl who suddenly had a look upon her face of mixed joy and surprise. "That's Luna you know: Luna Lovegood."
"I know," he said through a mouthful of ice cream. Luna beamed. Ginny ignored her best friend's bliss and continued with her point, "Uh Ron… in case you haven't noticed: Hermione's not here. It's just me and Luna."
He shrugged, still oblivious to her point. "Yeah, and if she was here then I would have said my three favourite girls, right?"
Ginny just sighed and shook her head. "Whatever you say…"
"So Ronald," Luna asked happily, "Did you find anything interesting in The Quibbler earlier?"
He turned his attention to the blonde next to him and said, "Oh, besides that comic not much really…" She had reverted back to her usual dreamy state at his answer, but for a moment he thought he saw a flash of disappointment in her eyes. He hastily tried to rectify his mistake, "But I uh, didn't really have enough time to go through it properly. You see, right after I finished lunch I brought it right back to you."
She smiled vaguely at him sending a wave of relief through him. "Well," she said, pulling out the magazine, "Did you notice this article?" she asked, opened it to a specific page and handed him the magazine.
He took it and looked at the title. "'What Really Happened in the Department of Mysteries the Night He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named Returned: A First Person Account'."
Luna smiled and quickly pointed just below the title. "Look just below it," she said happily.
He did so. "'Written by Luna Lovegood' Hey that's great!" he said grinning.
Luna was positively beaming. "The Prophet's version was beginning to get annoying, so I owled Harry and asked him if it was alright if I could write the truth and he said he didn't have a problem with it. Daddy sent out a copy to him, Hermione, and Neville so they could read it. I wanted to show you and Ginny myself so I waited until I got here to show you two."
Ginny, who had now joined the conversation, grinned. "And you'd better read it Ron; you have absolutely no excuse not to. Besides, she's a brilliant writer."
"Well, in that case," he said, catching Luna's eye and smiling, "I will read it then." He then laid down on his belly, smoothed out the magazine over the blanket and resumed eating his ice cream as he started to read the article. Next to him, Ginny giggled before returning to her own ice cream, while Luna stared happily at the back of Ron's head as she popped a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth.
A few minutes and an ice cream bowl later, Ron finished the article. He beamed, "Luna, you didn't make me look like as big of an idiot as I thought I was. Of course after that Death Eater hit me with that weird jinx my memory got kinda fuzzy…"
Ginny snickered while Luna looked almost sheepishly at Ron. "You really weren't that horrible. you just went a little funny, that's all."
Ginny laughed. "Please Luna! There's no need to sugar-coat stuff for him! He knows he's an idiot!"
Ron fumed. "I am not!!" he yelled just as Luna angrily said, "No he's not!"
Ginny stopped laughing and stared at her brother and best friend as they stared at each other. After a while, Ron flushed and Luna looked at the ground, seeming slightly embarrassed.
"Well," said Ginny, breaking the uncomfortable silence," I suppose I'll just leave you two to it then."
Neither Ron nor Luna acknowledged her as she hastily left the scene for the safety of the house. Instead, Luna stared even more intently at the ground and Ron turned his attention to a nearby tree.
"So…" said Ron finally, and with forced casualness, "You, uh, don't think I'm an idiot?"
Luna looked up at him and shook her head. "No," she said, "Not at all. I think you're funny."
He finally made eye contact with her. "Really?"
"Yes," she said, smiling vaguely.
"Cool," he managed as he stood up and leaned against the tree he'd stared at earlier. Luna merely watched him as he began scraping the tree trunk with his thumbnail.
One or two long minutes later, Ron spoke up again, "And I, uh, don't think you're insane. I just, uh, think you're a little weird. Bloody hell! That was the wrong thing to say! What I meant was I think you're weird in a good way. Yeah, that's it. And I don't think it's fair how people always make fun of you for being different."
Luna smiled. "Thank you Ronald."
He held out a hand in front of him. "Hold on, I'm not done yet."
She giggled and said, "Okay."
Hew furrowed his eyebrows in thought for a moment then continued his ramble, "And I like that you're not afraid to be yourself, even when people make fun of you. I think it's brave."
He finished by closing his eyes and folding his arms over his chest, signifying that he meant what he'd said. In an instant he felt the girl's hair flying into his face and her arms wrapping around his shoulders. She buried her face into the crook of his neck as she said, "Thank you Ronald," with more emotion in her voice than he'd ever heard from her.
He was quite shocked and unsure of what to do, so he decided to leave it to his instincts to decide. He placed his arms around her petite torso, allowing his hands to rest on the middle of her back as he held her close to him. It was an odd sensation; odd yet comforting. She exhaled contentedly.
Luna finally pulled back, revealing to him a pure smile and eyes swirling with emotion. The sight left him in awe. He could hardly breathe as she said, "I'll see you later Ronald," and walked away with a slight bounce in her step.
Once she'd disappeared into the house, he whispered to himself, "That was weird." After a moment of standing still in awe, he moved to pick up the three abandoned ice cream bowls and picnic blanket. Still slightly dazed, he brought them inside to his mother who was now in the living room knitting. Mrs. Weasley laid down her project to take the empty bowls from her son's hands. She looked at him curiously and continued into the kitchen to clean the bowls. He followed her and sat down alone at the table, tossing the blanket onto the chair next to him. As she scrubbed the first bowl clean, Mrs. Weasley asked, "What' wrong dear?"
Ron stared at the empty chair across from him. "Absolutely nothing."
Molly rolled her eyes. "Well then why are you acting so strange? You've been acting odd since lunch- even your brothers noticed."
He shrugged. He'd told the truth: nothing was wrong. In fact, the odd calm that had settled over him felt right if anything.
She turned around from the sink and stared at him intently, trying to figure him out. "Well?" she said expectantly, "I'm waiting for an answer."
He almost didn't want to tell her anything, but he felt that it would be okay if he did. "She hugged me," he said, still staring at the chair.
Mrs. Weasley resumed cleaning the bowls. "Who, your sister? It's not that surprising Ronald; you two may bicker almost constantly, but she still loves you."
"No Mum!" he said, suddenly frustrated, "Not Ginny! Luna! Luna hugged me, just now, outside by that tree." He pointed out the window at the mentioned tree.
She was surprised at first, but as quickly as it had come, her surprise faded to be replaced by a look of motherly understanding. It was the look that she wore, signifying that she new something that he couldn't begin to comprehend. He'd thought he'd finally outgrown that look, having not seen it since he was still too young to go to Hogwarts.
His mother turned off the sink, dried her hands on a dish towel, and sat next to her youngest son. She smiled at him lovingly and asked, "And how did it make you feel?"
He looked at her and shrugged. "I dunno," he said, "I suppose it confused me. I mean, I hardly know her, well I've known her for two years now, but I always thought she was crazy. I've never thought much about her before; I guess I never thought she was all that important, you know?"
"She went with you, Harry, Ginny, Hermione, and Neville into the Ministry of Magic that day, didn't she?"
"I know," he said, "If she hadn't woken up when she did, that brain thing probably would've strangled me to death." He sighed. "I just don't understand her."
Mrs. Weasley smiled. "You know," she said conversationally, "I have spent so many years trying to figure your father out, and I've gotten pretty far, but there are still times when I simply cannot understand what goes on in his head. Like those muggle things: batteries, eckelicity or whatever it's called."
Ron chuckled. "Yeah, but what does that have to do with Luna?"
She looked back at her son, "What I'm saying is to not push her away just because you don't understand her. Open up to her and she'll open up to you. And," she added, "given a little time and effort you may learn how to understand her better."
"But will I ever be able to fully understand her?"
Molly Weasley stood up and put a comforting hand on her son's shoulder. "Maybe or maybe not, but that isn't what's important. What is important is the time and effort that you put into it. Who knows," she said wisely, "It may become the best decision you'll ever make."
She left her still confused son to muddle over her words, while she resumed washing the ice cream bowls.
Ron was still perplexed as he walked into his bedroom a few minutes later. He hated it when his mother gave him those annoyingly cryptic answers that were just as confusing to him as studying for tests. But he decided to take the portion of her advice that he understood. He chose to open up to Luna more and get to know her better, and he figured the best way to accomplish this was to spend more time with her and become her friend. Even if that meant spending more time with Ginny, he figured it was worth it. And although he knew that people would tease him for being friends with her, but he realized that Ginny was Luna's best friend and his sister was still popular; and he remembered that Harry, his own best friend, had taken Luna to Slughorn's Christmas party last year, and people still thought of him as "The Chosen One." He finally came to a conclusion: he was determined to be Luna's friend and find a way to understand how she works- and he wasn't going to let either his own laziness or others taunts get in the way of that.
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~End Chapter two
-alrighty, here's number two :) if you guys enjoy it enough i'll post more chapters as soon as i can. I've had this fic on fanfiction.net for a while, but haven't gotten around to updating it due to the crazy busyness that is life, but hopefully I can get myself in gear lol and I hope you guys enjoy it here :)
~hugs