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 III: OWLs and Surprises
Ron was happier than he'd ever felt. The wind whipped through his hair gently as his heart soared… he felt as if he was in heaven. But suddenly he felt as if he was caught in the middle of an earthquake. He awoke to find his entire room trembling around him, although he quickly realised that the only thing actually moving was his mattress. Then, as quickly as the shaking had started, it ceased. There was one final shake of the mattress as a plopping sound erupted from somewhere near his feet. He grunted and rolled over to see what had caused the mini-earthquake.
"Luna…" he groaned groggily, "What are you doing?"
She sat at the foot of the bed, staring and smiling innocently at him. "I'm waking you up of course."
He pulled the sheets, trying to block her out. "Why don't you go hang out with Ginny? I'm trying to sleep."
Without warning, she sat herself on top of his stomach and yanked the sheets off his face, and wasted no time in staring him down.
He gasped for air, "Can't breathe…"
She promptly scooted off his belly and instead took residence upon his legs. She pouted. "I couldn't wake Ginny," she said, "She's like dead weight when she's asleep. I tried everything, but she still wouldn't wake up. You're much easier to wake up; I don't understand why your mother has so much trouble with it…"
He attempted to kick her off him, but to no avail. "It's not the waking me up part that's the trouble: it's the getting me out of bed part that's difficult."
"Oh I see…" she responded, lifting herself off his legs and hopping off the bed. She took to grinning mischievously at him.
He gaped at her in horror. "What are you gonna do to me?"
"Just wait and see Ronald."
He gulped and in a split second his sheets were at the foot of the bed and Luna was reaching for his ankles.
"No!" he yelled, sitting bolt upright and grabbing her wrists just as her hands had attached themselves to his shins. "Luna, stop it!"
She was laughing.
"Hey!" he growled as he hopelessly struggled with her hands, "It's not funny!"
He finally managed to detach her fingers from his ankles and shoved her toward the centre of the room. She stared at him, grinning, and said, "Okay Ronald Weasley, you won that round, but let's see if you can beat this!"
She pounced at him, her nails soon coming into contact with his stomach as she tried tickling him.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm trying to tickle you," she said, showing signs of frustration.
"Well you're not going to get very far since my stomach isn't ticklish."
"Well then where is your ticklish spot?"
"I'm not telling you!" he said indignantly.
She pouted again. "Fine then: I'll just find it for myself!"
She tried tickling spot after spot until she reached his sides.
He bit his lower lip to keep from laughing.
"Aha!" she said triumphantly as one hand shot to each side of his torso.
A giggle finally escaped his mouth as his hands helplessly swatted at any part of her arms they oculd hit. "Stop it! Luna! Stop!" he said between attempts at quelling his oncoming laughter.
"Hmm…" Luna said teasingly between her own giggles, "Apparently this isn't working well enough."
She stopped tickling him for a moment only to stick her hands up his shirt and resume attacking his sides, this time making contact his bare skin.
"Ah! Luna, stop!" he managed before his voice burst into fits of laughter.
After a minute or so, she finally stopped to give him a break. He panted heavily and slowly. "Bloody hell… That was really not nice, you know that?"
"I know," she said, staring happily at him.
"Well," he said as soon as his breathing had returned to normal, "Now it's time for some revenge!" Before she could stop him, he grabbed her waist and flipped her over so that now it was Luna who was lying flat on the bed with Ron hovering above her. His fingers dove at her stomach. She let out a brief, high-pitched squeal as he relentlessly tickled her belly. After a few choruses of Luna saying, "No! Ronald, stop it!" he finally relented and, still hovering over her, pushed himself onto the empty space beside her.
He laid down on his back and turned his head to face hers. She too turned her head. As they made eye contact, both burst into laughter.
Ron finally sighed and said, "Wow. That was the most fun I've ever had form a tickle fight since I was about six."
Luna giggled, "Ten for me."
"I guess girls are more into that stuff, huh?"
"Probably."
He sighed, turning his head to read the muggle alarm clock next to his bed.
"Bloody hell," he groaned, "It's only quarter 'til eight. I'm never awake this early."
"Well you're awake now, so there's no reason to say you're never awake this early," she responded in her usual airy manner.
He just looked at her.
"What?" she asked, "You're looking at me funny."
"You're just… a mystery."
"I suppose I would be, seeing as you've known me for two years now and are just now paying me any attention." It was one of those unnerving truths that she always had to say aloud.
"Err…" was all he could manage.
"I don't mind," she continued dreamily, "you're still only the third person to ever express any interest in getting to know me; Ginny was the first and Harry the second."
"…Right…" he responded.
"Well," she continued, "I suppose I'll tell you the basics. Things you already know: name- Luna Lovegood, hair colour- blonde, eyes- silvery blue, height- short, age- sixteen; some other things: favourite colour- blue, favourite animal- Crumple-Horned Snorkack, house- Ravenclaw, favourite class- Care of Magical Creatures. Well… now I suppose I'll allow you to ask questions."
"That simple is it?"
"Yes."
"Okay," he said. "What's your family like?"
She answered the question impassively, "It's just Daddy and I; my mother died when I was nine. She was a very powerful witch, but she liked to experiment with spells, and one day one of them backfired on her. It was quite horrible."
His jaw dropped. "So… you actually saw her die?"
"Yes."
"Damn… that's terrible."
"It's not like I'll never see her again or anything like that," she said calmly, "Someday I'll find her again."
He looked at her awkwardly again.
"Would you stop giving me funny looks," she said, slightly annoyed, "and ask more questions."
"Right," he said, hastily changing the subject, "Who was your first friend? Ever, I mean."
"Well," she said, putting her index finger to her lip as she pondered the question, "I suppose the first friend I ever had was when I was five; there was this boy that lived next door, but once we got older he started teasing me, then his family moved away not long after Mum died. But," she continued, "my first real friend was Ginny. What about you?"
"What about me?"
"Who was your first friend?"
"Oh, I guess Harry was. Our only neighbours are muggles who live several miles away, so I only had my siblings to play with when I was little."
"What about after Harry?" she asked.
He pondered this, "Well, then it was Dean and Seamus, then Neville I guess, then Hermione."
"Really?" she said, "I figured Hermione was second or something."
"Nope. Actually," he confessed, "she didn't become friends with Harry and I until Halloween of first year-we saved her from getting killed by a troll, and she just kinda tagged along with us everywhere since. At first I actually thought all she was was a stuffy, know-it-all bookworm. Well, she is, but there's really more to her than just that. Actually, we all made fun of her before Harry decided to run off and save her."
"Kind of like you were with me before I commentated at that Quidditch match last year."
His stomach wrenched-she telling those uncomfortable truths again. "Err…I suppose…yes."
"Why?" she asked; her voice was suddenly void of all emotion, but somehow he sensed hurt hidden beneath it.
"I dunno…" he replied, trailing off.
"Yes you do," she persisted, although still impassively, "You wouldn't have called me 'Loony' if there was no reason behind it. Nothing happens without a reason."
He bolted up, beginning to get angry, "Hey! It was only that once, and it was after that Death Eater hit me with that funny hex; it wasn't my fault!"
She sat up and shook her head, annoyance getting the best of her, "I know about that, I was there you know. What I'm talking about is the other time."
"When?" he asked huffily.
"After Harry asked me to Slughorn's party. Ginny told me that you called me 'Loony' and that you didn't like that Harry was taking me."
He was at a loss for words. She was right and he couldn't deny it. Instead of looking her in the eye, he focused guiltily on the floor.
She quickly allowed any anger she'd felt wash away: This was the first time they had ever argued, and it was obvious that neither of them had any taste for it.
"I just want to know why, that's all; and why you changed your mind about me," she said finally.
Reluctantly, he looked up at her. He sighed. "It's because…everybody thought you were insane, and I thought you were insane, and…" he said, heating up again, "I'm insecure, if you haven't noticed! I don't want to be made fun of more than I already am!"
"I know," she said, "So what made you change your mind?"
"I suppose it was that commentary at the match against Hufflepuff. It was hilarious. That whole 'Losers Lurgy' thing was brilliant. I never like that Zacharias Smith anyways… And that idiot McLaggen got what was coming to him."
"So all it took was for me to make you laugh?" she asked curiously.
He shrugged. "Yeah, I guess so," he said as he reached under his bed, pulling out a bag of candy.
She smiled at him. "Well that's easier than I thought. If I'd known that, I would've done something sooner."
He popped a chocolate frog into his mouth and asked, "So, you actually wanted to be my friend?"
"Of course, why wouldn't I?"
He swallowed the chocolate. "I guess… I just didn't think people like me enough to try to become friends with me. I'm nothing like Harry or Hermione, I can why people would want to be friends with either of them, but me? What do I have that they don't?"
"You're right about one thing: you aren't like Harry or Hermione. If anything, you're better than them, you just have to figure out how for yourself. Then you'll see what you have."
Her words puzzled him. But even if he'd wanted to ponder what she meant, he didn't have time to. His bedroom door flew open and in came Ginny, looking both worried and flustered.
"Ron, have you seen-" but she cut herself off when she saw her best friend sitting next to her brother, eating a chocolate frog.
"Oh," she managed, "I was looking for you, Luna. I asked mum if you'd come down yet, and she said she didn't think so. Why in Merlin's name did you wake Ron? I told you it would be alright if you woke me up early."
"You wouldn't wake up," Luna said dreamily, "And I didn't have any trouble waking up Ronald."
"What are you talking about?" the red-haired girl asked, exasperated, "It's impossible to get him up!"
"It's really quite simple," the blonde began, but before she could reveal the secret, Ron's hands had clamped themselves over her mouth.
"Shh!!" he hissed hastily into Luna's ear, "Don't tell her anything!"
Ginny laughed. "Get over it Ron, she's my best friend, so she's going to tell me later anyways. You'd might as well get it over with now. Right Luna?"
Luna, who looked extremely bored by the situation, shook her head slightly.
Ginny's jaw dropped while Ron grinned triumphantly. Then Luna pulled Ron's hands off her mouth and said to her best friend, "If Ronald doesn't want me to say anything, then I won't."
Ginny's temper flared. She said, "Fine! You and your little boyfriend can keep your stupid secrets!" before she bolted from the room.
Looking only slightly startled, Luna said, "She'll be fine in a little while."
Soon she hopped off the bed and followed her best friend's trail out the door.
Still not intending to leave his room quite yet, Ron plopped down onto his bed and covered himself with the sheets once more.
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When Ron finally dragged himself downstairs an hour later, he noticed that Ginny and Luna were sitting next to each other happily; clearly the earlier argument had dissolved by now.
"Hey Ron," Ginny said, not turning her attention away from the quiz she was working on with Luna in The Quibbler.
He plopped into a chair across from the two girls. "Hey Ginny, Luna," he said, still half asleep: waking up early really wasn't a good thing for him; he needed at least another two hours of sleep, but it just wouldn't come.
"Ronald," his mother said while sliding a plate of bacon and eggs to him, "the girls told me that Luna woke you up early, and I'm very glad for it. I would love it if she would stay over more than just one week. It's wonderful when Ginny actually has some company, and Luna's so nice about helping out." Mrs. Weasley beamed at the blonde girl: that is until Luna put on a pair of Spectrespecs and turned The Quibbler upside-down.
Ron could tell that, although his mother was fond of Luna, she still thought that the girl was very strange. Everyone thought, no knew, that Luna was weird. He supposed it was just a matter of whether you were willing to accept her quirks or not.
As he began shovelling scrambled eggs into his mouth, there was a rapping sound at the kitchen window. All four of the room's inhabitants turned their attention to the source of the interruption. Just outside the window were two nearly identical brown barn owls, each with a piece of parchment tied to their legs. As Mrs. Weasley quickly made to open the window, Ginny said, both nervously and sarcastically, "Oh great, our OWLs are here."
Once the owls were inside, the two girls each found their respective one and unrolled their scrolls of parchment. Ginny unrolled hers, shaking slightly, while Luna unrolled hers with either boredom or confidence: which one, Ron couldn't tell. He watched as Ginny's eyes rolled over her results twice, making sure that she read them correctly before a grin plastered onto her face. "Yes!" she cheered, "I got just as many OWLs as Ron! Ha! Except I got two O's!"
Luna, too, was smiling. "Daddy will be happy," she said as Ginny snatched the results form her best friend's hands.
"Hey," the red-haired girl said, "You only failed History of Magic and Muggle Studies. Awesome. Why'd you take Muggle Studies anyways?"
"Daddy wanted me to," Luna responded, "I didn't like it much. And so much of the History of Magic information was inaccurate. It's no surprise I got a D: the Ministry always tries to cover up the truth."
"Hey," Ron said, pointing at the rolls of parchment on the table, "Can I see what you two got?"
"Of course," Luna said passively as she handed her results to him.
Examining her results, Ron noticed how good a student Luna was. She had gotten on O in Defence Against the Dark Arts, Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, and Transfiguration; she'd gotten an E in Astronomy, Herbology, Divination, and Potions; she got a P in Muggle Studies, and a D in History of Magic.
"Wow," he said, "You got really good grades."
"I suppose," Luna responded.
"Why do you do that?" he asked simply.
"Why do I do what?" she asked in return, not knowing his purpose.
"You know," he said, "why do you always act like nothing is a big deal, like nothing is worth anything?"
Luna stared at him, clearly not fancying his challenge on her nature. Ginny glared at her brother. "Ron shut up. Luna doesn't owe you an explanation of why she is the way she is. Nor," she said as she snatched her best friend's test results from his hand, "does she have to tell you anything about her grades, or anything else about herself."
Ron fired up the same angry glare that his sister was using against him, causing a startling resemblance between the two, "So excuse me for trying to be her friend."
Ginny laughed, "You? You trying to be friends with Luna? Give me a break. Since when have you ever become friends with someone you make fun of?"
He stared at his sister defiantly, knowing that he was going to win this argument. "I'm friends with Hermione, aren't I?"
Ginny opened her mouth to retort, but no words would come. Eventually she dug up a comeback of sorts. "Well…" she said, formulating her words carefully, "Just don't you dare do anything to break her heart! You got it?"
"I won't."
"You'd better not! Especially after everything you put Hermione through last year."
"Hey!" he said, "I didn't do it on purpose! And it was all your fault anyway!"
"How was it my fault?" Ginny asked, raging. They were both so angry they didn't even notice their mother attempting to break them apart.
"Because you're the one who bloody insulted me! Saying I had as much experience as a twelve year old or whatever it was!"
"Oh please! I'm not the one who made you get all moody or date lavender Brown! Trust me, you could've done a lot better than her!"
"Oh, well, who would you have me date then?" he said sarcastically.
"How should I know? That's not my decision!" she retorted, red-faced.
"Come on, tell me! Who would you pick? If I ever left it up to you that is…not that I would!"
"You really want to know?" she asked, hands on her hips.
"Yes," he said, staring at her.
"No one," she folded her arms across her chest, talking calmly and defiantly, "I'd choose for you to be all alone for the rest of your life."
Ron's temper was over the edge; his sister had finally pushed him too far. He yelled, "Shut up!" at her as he pulled his arm back, then thrust it toward her face. But just before his fist came in contact with his sister's face, something yanked him backward.
"Stop it!" Luna yelled in his ear, gripping his torso tightly in her arms. Despite his rage, he allowed himself to relax slightly in her arms as she dragged him out of the kitchen and toward the stairs. Once they reached the stairs, Luna swung him around, grabbed his arm in her hand, and dug her nails into his skin. She glared at him and said, "What the hell were you thinking? Why did you try to hit Ginny?"
"She asked for it!" Ron replied bitterly.
Luna's free hand smacked his cheek, leaving him stunned. "She never asked for you to hit her."
He made a lame attempt to justify himself, "You heard what she said!"
"Yes I did, but that doesn't give you the right to try and hit her."
"But Luna…" he whined, trying to appear as pitiful as possible.
She released her grip on his arm and merely looked at him: no anger, no pity; she just looked at him and said, "Ronald, I appreciate that you want to be my friend, but if you and Ginny are only going to have row after row about it, then it's not worth it."
"What?!" he said, more than asked, "That's not fair! Luna! I want to be your friend!"
"And I want to be yours, but if this is how things are going to be then it can't work."
"But Ginny and I always fight. We're siblings, that's how it works. It's always been this way, ever since we were little. Come on, she dated my best friend and I didn't row with them about it! I didn't like it, but I didn't fight them over it either."
"That's the difference Ronald: you and Ginny are arguing and fighting over me. You never argued or fought over Harry."
"We did too argue, occasionally."
"But it never resulted in anything serious right?"
"Well no, but-"
"That's all it takes. Blood is the most important thing there is. It binds people together: and if anything comes between them then it's not worth it."
"But Luna!"
"No Ronald, I'm sorry," she said, turning to leave.
Ron grabbed her arm. "Luna, please don't do this. Please, I promise I won't fight with Ginny about it ever again," he pleaded earnestly.
She sighed in hesitation, but succumbed to the weakness that was Ron Weasley. "Alright," she said reluctantly, "but nothing like this can ever happen again."
"It won't."
"Good. Now…" she said as she grabbed the hand that had previously held onto her arm, "You are going back into the kitchen and apologise to Ginny."
His stubbornness flared up initially, but one glance at how serious Luna actually was, and he mutely allowed her to pull him away from the stairs. As they walked to the kitchen Ron thought he was going mad. Why was he letting his sister win? It made absolutely no sense. And why was he being so submissive toward Luna? Ever since she'd arrived the day before he'd essentially allowed her to walk all over him. And yet he wasn't complaining. He was just so confused. He never back down for his sister, never backed down for Hermione, and never even considered doing so-his male ego saw to that. Yet as he entered the kitchen and saw his sister's face, mixed with rage, shock, and hurt, he realised that this wasn't about the red-haired girl in front of him, nor about the wise red-haired woman with a comforting arm around her daughter's shoulders, nor about the bushy-haired bookworm that had always tried, and miserably failed to dominate him, nor was it about any other girl, or person, for that matter. It was solely about the strange blonde girl next to him, who still held on firmly to his unsteady hand.
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>end chapter three
Now the end has come for the longest chapter so far. Happy thoughts. Well, if I'm lucky I should be able to get chapter four typed up and posted by tomorrow, and maybe even chapter five. Although chapter five is driving me a bit mad right now; you'll all understand why when I actually get it posted. It was a very frustrating chapter to write and even worse to edit, so I hope when it finally comes that everybody enjoys it, especially since it'll probably turn out to be one of my favourites in the end.
Oh, I'm sure you're wondering, but just so you know, I have almost a full outline for this story in my notebook so that >shudders> should I have to take a break from working on this story for a while, I'll actually be able to pick up where I left off. It's one of those helpful things I've finally learned to do after nearly seven years of writing fanfiction. So yeah, I have a definite plan for where this story is going to go, there will be times when you'll probably want to throw bricks at my bedroom window or curse me into oblivion, but just so you know, during such moments in this story I will also have the desire to do such things to myself [although I will certainly restrain myself from said behaviour so as to fix the thoughts of evil nature by adding in lots of happy Ron/Luna fluffiness]. I always have to have fluffiness, heaven knows… It's kind of like my calling in life, I suppose if I had to have a superhero name I'd be the "Fluffinator" or something equally cliché and utterly ridiculous. Wow, I'm rambling far too much: that's what happens when I stay up past midnight doing this stuff with no sounds but those of my snoring dog, who just so happens to be an inch away from the back of my laptop's screen at the moment. So yeah, that's what happens. Wow, I totally need to shut up now. Anyways… until chapter four!
>A/N Update: okay, that note just above is the original note that I posted on fanfic.net but I found it funny so I left it here for all my lovely portkeyers :) as it contains some important information amongst the ramblings, alrighty, well, I'm getting to work on typing the fourth chapter up and think I'm almost done editing the 5th, and I've started writing the 6th, but we'll see how all that works out later :)
~hugs