Chapter Seven - The Balance Sheet of Life
Stepping out into the ward, Luna nodded amicably to Madame Pomfrey, who was sitting at a table and annotating some parchments. Wandering over to where the youngest Weasley was being confined, Luna felt the subtle brush of the wards as she neared the bed where Ginny waited.
Seeing that the wards would ignore her as long as she didn't attempt to engineer the freedom of the witch they had been cast to contain, Luna frowned slightly at the look on Ginny's face as she looked up to see who was approaching her.
"Sorry, Ginevra, I'm not Harry come to rescue you from durance vile." Shaking her head at the look on her friend's face, Luna sat on the foot of the bed, far enough away to not tempt her volatile friend into attempting to seize her wand and do something rash.
"Luna, has Harry come to his senses and spoken to the Headmistress about me, yet?" Shaking her head in disbelief, the red-haired witch muttered to herself, "I can't believe its taking this bloody long to kick in."
"Ginevra, Harry's totally in his `right mind', although right about now I'd imagine that he's having a bit of a difficult time focusing on anything too abstract." Shaking her head, Luna dropped her normally affable demeanor and glared at her friend. "You used me to harm those two, and we need to discuss that, among other things."
"Luna, I have no idea what you're going on about." Watching her warily, Ginny looked around the room. "Did the Headmistress say anything about why I'm being held here? My symptoms have abated and I need to get out of here and take care of a few things."
Leaning back, Luna studied her friend for almost a minute before answering. Letting her eyes unfocus for a bit, she gazed at Ginny and slid easily into her surface thoughts. Roiling as if they were a pool being churned by furious activity deep beneath the surface, Luna noted the images Ginny was trying to not think about, a cache of restricted potions materials hidden in the false bottom of her school trunk and a thirty year old journal hidden behind the unmentionables drawer in her wardrobe.
"I'm certain that the Headmistress has already retrieved your mother's journal and the cache of potions materials you have in your trunk." Seeing the shocked look on Ginny's face, she nodded grimly. "And what I'm talking about is the Dryad's Kiss you dosed Harry with our fifth year." Shaking her head, Luna scowled. "You owed that boy a Wizard's Debt and that was how you thought to repay him?
Blushing, Ginny shook her head. "It was for the best. Harry and I are meant to be together, everyone knows that. The day we met, at King's Cross, there was a connection. If he hadn't gotten on the train so quickly, he would have realized I was the one and he would have waited for me. He would have ignored that bookworm when she came bustling into their compartment to set her claws into him." Looking defiantly at Luna, Ginny glared. "Ron told me all about how she came in there and started working her way into his heart."
"Enough!" Luna's voice echoed around the room. The nearby window rattled a bit, small objects on a nearby table shifted, and Ginny looked as if she had been physically slapped.
Gone was the dreamy, otherworldly Luna Lovegood that Ginny had known most of her life. In her place was a cold, implacable witch that radiated power and menace. Pinned beneath the weight of her gaze, Ginny visibly shrank back as Luna's silvery gaze bore into her, deep into her soul.
"Ginevra Molly Weasley. You are meddling with things you cannot comprehend. Those two have been marked for each other since before they were born, that day on the train was the culmination of almost a century of waiting." Closing her eyes, briefly, Luna allowed Ginny to slump down as her gaze left her. Opening them again, she stared at her friend with a look that was both sorrow and contempt.
"The fates aren't done with those two, but you are. Harry is forever beyond the reach of your childish plots and games. The witch his heart was made for has claimed it." Shaking her head, Luna sighed. Her voice returned to its normal slightly distracted quality. "Do you honestly believe you can still come between them? Did today teach you nothing?"
Closing her eyes, Ginny began to shake her head from side to side, her long hair flaring out in a living corona around her; she clenched her fists in front of her. "I must have made a mistake with the formulation. Once I'm out of here and can keep down a meal, I'll regroup and do it again. I'll sweep the influence she has over him from him and he'll realize that I'm the one he needs, the one he wants."
Luna deliberately placed her wand behind her ear. Glancing over towards the door to the Matron's Office, she could see the Headmistress watching her with a very attentive look. Coming to a conclusion, Luna turned back to her childhood friend and cast a nonverbal, wandless spell. Seeing Ginny freeze in place, only her eyes able to move as they darted back and forth, trying to discern the source of the spell that had robbed her of her mobility, Luna waited until her friend's attention returned to her before she spoke again.
"Ginevra, whether or not you spend the next twenty years of your life in Azkaban depends largely upon how our conversation goes." Seeing her friend's eyes go wide, Luna nodded and smiled, as if they were having a normal conversation. "I'm going to explain exactly what happened today and what will happen next time you attempt anything so incredibly foolish."
Waiting several seconds for what she had said to sink in, Luna nodded and began in a quiet voice. "Your potion was perfect. The fact that Harry's hair turned that shocking shade is proof that you were spot on with your technique." Nodding in response to Ginny's eyes narrowing at that revelation, Luna continued.
"Fortunately, for all involved, the Dryad's Kiss you had dosed Harry with years ago was removed from his system earlier today. If it hadn't, the reaction between the two potions would have been very severe, potentially fatal."
Releasing Ginny from the spell holding her in place, Luna watched as she collapsed back on the bed. Ginny was staring at her in horror. "I checked the miscibility index. The Dryad's Kiss must have been gone from his system; otherwise he wouldn't have broken up with me at Headmaster Dumbledore's funeral. He told me that Harry should be with me, promised me."
"The shock of Professor Dumbledore dying before his eyes and his need for her broke the hold the Dryad's Kiss had on him, but it was still in his system until this morning." Not giving Ginny any time to process that, Luna continued.
"The Headmaster encouraged your infatuation with Harry to further his own agenda, Ginevra. He knew as well as everyone else did that Harry's destiny was entwined with Hermione's, but he was hoping an attraction to you, artificial or otherwise, would prod Harry to sacrifice his life to defeat Voldemort." Shaking her head, Luna glared at her friend. "I think the technical term for your role in the Headmaster's plan is `The Judas Goat'."
"He wouldn't. He loved Harry and wanted him to be happy. He wanted him to be with me."
"Grow up, Ginevra. Professor Dumbledore wanted Harry with you because you'd remind him of his dead mother." Watching her friend shake her head in disbelief, Luna bored in for the kill. "His mother, whom you're very similar to in physique and hair coloring, sacrificed her life to save Harry's the night Voldemort attacked and killed Harry's parents. Dumbledore wanted you as a living, breathing reminder of that sacrifice so Harry would willingly lay down his life to defeat Voldemort. You were nothing to Dumbledore but a walking, talking ghost; a reminder of what Harry's ultimate fate was to be. There were no long-term plans from our Headmaster, you were meant to insure that Harry would die at the appropriate moment."
"But he came back." Whispering, Ginny's horrified expression tugged at Luna's heartstrings. Ignoring the sympathy she felt for how her friend had been used, she prepared to batter her again with that cruel hammer called `truth'.
"Aye, he came back. For her." Seeing the look on Ginny's face, Luna nodded. "Harry laid down his life to defeat Voldemort, he sacrificed himself to someone else a chance to end the nightmare. But, down deep, he walked out to the forest to give Hermione a chance to live and find happiness. Without him. He came back because she needed him." Taking a deep breath, Luna preempted Ginny's next objection. "He risked his life for you in the Chamber of Secrets, as he would for anyone. He sacrificed his life for hers, as she would for him." Shaking her head sadly, she whispered, "As they both had, before."
Tears rolling down her cheeks, Ginny stared at Luna. "How do you know, how can you know?"
Nodding, Luna got up from her place at the foot of the bed and moved closer to her friend. Sitting herself back on the bed, she gathered the crying witch to her and wrapped her arms around her. Feeling Ginny begin to sob, she held her for several seconds before answering.
"I talked to him, talked to them both. I took the time to get to know the real Harry, something you never did." Gently stroking her hair, Luna felt the sobs wracking her friend and smiled. "Ginevra, Harry cared about you, once upon a time, and he will again, but his heart was always hers and hers alone. What they have for each other isn't something that you can meddle with. They truly love each other; the Amortentia confirmed what I always suspected about them."
Raising her head from Luna's shoulder, Ginny stared at her in bewilderment. "Amortentia? Did she use that to bind him to her?"
"Silly witch, Amortentia reveals love, it doesn't create it. If you would have used that potion, it would have swept the Dryad's Kiss from his system and allowed their love to manifest itself. As it was, if I hadn't intervened, you could have killed Harry and ruined your own life in the process."
Seeing the look in Ginny's eyes, Luna nodded. "I gave him the Amortentia earlier today to make amends for the role I played in keeping the two of them apart."
"Luna, what can I do? How can I just stop loving him?" Shaking her head, Ginny stared at her friend. "I've been waiting for him since I was six."
"Ginny, at six you were told a bedtime story about a little lost boy who disappeared after he defeated the darkest wizard anyone had ever known. You became enchanted by the concept of Harry Potter; you imagined he was living somewhere mysterious, learning ancient magics, waiting to save the wizarding world once again." Seeing her friend nod in agreement, Luna smiled sadly.
"My mum was a bit of a seer, and she told the story quite differently. She had been friends with a girl named Lily Evans in school, and she remembered the joy that Lily felt when she finally realized that James Potter was the wizard for her.
The night Harry's parents were killed, my mum woke up from a nightmare to `seeing' what was happening in Godric's Hollow. It wasn't Harry who defeated Voldemort that night, it was Lily Potter. She laid down her life to protect her son, Voldemort had already cruelly murdered her beloved husband and she knew her time had come. She willingly died to give Harry a chance.
While you were daydreaming about Harry the Champion, the family he lived with was cruelly using him. His mother's sister allowed her vicious husband to mistreat and abuse him. Your family filled the Burrow to the rafters, but you had a room that was fit for a little princess witch, Harry lived beneath the stairs in a cupboard with spiders for company."
Shaking her head, Luna noted the horror and disbelief in her friend's eyes. Nodding sadly, Luna softly finished. "The wizard you've been waiting for never existed. He was never `The Boy Who Lived'. He was always `The Boy Who Survived'. He didn't start to live until after Tom Riddle was defeated."
"You've always known, haven't you?" Sitting up, Ginny stared at her friend in disbelief. "That's why you told me our second year that Harry wasn't who I thought he was."
"I wasn't going to argue with you about something so obvious." Smiling, Luna shrugged. "Hermione wasn't ready to believe about nargles, you weren't ready to believe Harry wasn't some hero that you could claim for your own."
"What do I do?" Looking a bit lost, Ginny's shoulders slumped as she looked down at her hands. "I still love him, what do I do with that?"
"I love Harry, also. He's very easy to love once you get to know him. But that's not the same thing as being `in love' with him." Watching her friend carefully, Luna observed how she was processing this latest piece of news.
"You love Harry? But I thought you said that your mum told you different stories about him?"
"That doesn't have anything to do with it. When I got to Hogwarts, I was interested in seeing who Harry was, especially since you were going on and on about him. As time passed, my first three years, I observed him, and how he reacted with his friends and others. I discovered he was totally different from what you told me, and certainly different from the twaddle that the Prophet printed about him.
Once I got to know Harry, things began to change. I could see him as an individual, and how he treated the people around him. Gradually, I began to care about him, not because of what had happened when he was still in nappies, but because I could see he genuinely cared about those of us that chose to stand with him. The more I saw of him, and interacted with him, the more I realized I had begun to love him."
Seeing the look on Ginny's face, she shook her head. "Not in the sense of `snog him senseless' love him, but in the sense that he's someone important in my life and I'd go out of my way to help him and protect him. I love Harry because of who he is as a person, not just what he's done. And loving him means that I really want him to be happy with his life."
Pausing a bit while Ginny thought about what she had said, Luna reached out and placed her hand on Ginny's arm. "Do you want Harry to be happy?"
"Of course. I just always thought I'd be the one to make him happy." Looking up at Luna, Ginny stared at the blond witch, waiting to see what would follow.
"You can't make anyone else happy, Ginevra, only yourself. Harry will be happy because he's where he needs to be, with the one he needs to be with. Hermione can't make Harry happy, but the two of them allow each other to be happy. And since we both love and care for Harry, his being happy will contribute to our being happy."
"Ack!" Shaking her head in frustration, Ginny closed her eyes and tried to think. Opening them again, she shook her head at Luna. "This was so much easier when all I was trying to do was get Harry to snog me senseless and then take him to the Room of Requirement for the weekend. Why did you have to clutter everything up like this?"
"Ginevra, love is never simple. You're talking about passion and lust, which is usually fairly simple." Seeing the look on Ginny's face, Luna grinned and nodded in agreement. "All right, it's wicked fun along with being fairly simple. And there's nothing wrong with passion and a goodly amount of lust when you're with someone you love. And if everyone agrees ahead of time, there's nothing wrong with a bit of passion and lust just for its own sake."
Looking straight at the younger witch, Luna waited until she stopped grinning before continuing. "Your problem is that you confused the two."
"But I did love Harry. I do."
"Ginevra, you loved the concept of Harry. Before you met him at the train that day, you were over the moon in love with the romantic concept of Harry Potter. If someone had walked up with a flashing sign that read `This is Harry Potter' you would have swooned all over him. When a scrawny, lost, eleven year old in thread-bare hand-me-downs, broken glasses and weird hair came up and asked you mum how to get to the train, did you immediately faint at his feet? Did you swoon? Did you say, `that's the guy I'm going to shag senseless and marry someday'?"
"Well, no. He was just some geeky kid who couldn't even find his way to the train." Blushing, she shook her head. "But that changed."
"Right. It changed after your brothers told you who he was. Then you wanted to go see him, talk to him, fawn over him." Smiling, Luna chuckled at the scowl on Ginny's face.
"You don't have to make it sound so superficial and shallow. I was ten, for Merlin's sake."
"True." Nodding, Luna smiled as she saw Ginny walking straight where she wanted her to be. "Now let's take a glance at what happened when Hermione met Harry."
"You weren't there, how would you know?" Looking at her friend suspiciously, Ginny's eyes narrowed as she frowned at Luna.
"I've talked to both your brother and Neville, who were there. And it made enough of an impression on both of them that they remember it fairly clearly." Smiling, Luna nodded her head. "Hermione came bustling into the compartment with your brother and Harry, Neville in tow, trying to find Neville's toad Trevor. You know how she is, she was talking a mile a minute, recited from memory the entry from `Famous Wizards' about Harry to him and then watched your brother try some ridiculous spell on Scabbers. She noticed Harry's glasses were broken and she fixed them for him. That's when it happened."
"What happened?" Chuckling, Ginny could just picture a first-year Hermione coming in and totally taking over the compartment.
"Neville calls it `The Look' while your brother swears that both of them were attacked by wrackspurts. They truly noticed each other and it was one of those moments when the two of them just tuned out the rest of the world, and there was nothing else in the Universe but the other person. I believe they found each other. Ronald then made some ridiculous silly comment and things went back to normal, but for that one moment, the two of them only saw each other. Not the pretenses that we all show to the world, but the real person inside." Shaking her head, Luna sighed.
"For what it's worth, I truly believe that they fell in love with each other that day on the train. The last seven years has just been window dressing, leading up to today."
"That's just bloody marvelous. Why can't people like that come with some sort of sign or label that says, `Don't bother, he's just waiting until Hermione gets around to claiming him'?" Frowning, Ginny started picking the threads on the edge of the blanket that covered the bed she was sitting on,
"The sign was there, you just refused to look at it." Smirking a bit, Luna nodded when Ginny looked up at her in surprise. "Ask George. He's been running a pool since their third year about when they'd get together. Over half the school, most of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, have bet on them at one time or another." Seeing the shocked look on Ginny's face, Luna nodded again. "Although George insists on maintaining `client confidentiality', rumor has it that several of the staff members have been known to wager a sickle or two on just when those two were finally going to get together."
Falling back onto the bed, Ginny began to moan, covering her eyes with her hands. "Not only do I not get Harry, but apparently I'm the laughingstock of the school for chasing a wizard who couldn't be caught."
"If it's any consolation, a goodly number of witches were rooting for you." Seeing the disbelieving look on her face, Luna nodded.
Rolling over on her side, Ginny propped her head on her hand. Rolling her eyes, she sighed. "Out with it, let's get to the punch line. Why were they rooting for me to snag Harry?"
"Apparently, the reasoning was they didn't think they had a chance at beating out Hermione if she ever got him, but you were much less of a sure thing."
"Just bloody marvelous. It's like those frost wolves Hagrid told us about. They wait for a dire wolf to take down one of those aurochs because they know they don't have a chance against the auroch. Then they gang up on the single wolf and drive her away to steal the kill." Shaking her head, she rolled back onto her back. "What do I do now?"
"What is it that you want?" Looking at Ginny carefully, Luna was starting to have some hope for the younger witch as she could see she was genuinely considering Luna's question.
"I want my friends back." Staring at the ceiling, Ginny chewed her lip. "I want to go to them, admit I've been a rotter and hope they'll, at least, consider forgiving me someday." Closing her eyes and sighing, she took several deep breaths before she finished. "I want my life back."
"Ginevra, I think that's doable." Nodding at the surprised look on her face, Luna shrugged. "Deep down, Harry still cares about you and once he's had a chance to think about it, I think he can be convinced that you've genuinely learned your lesson and you didn't act out of malice." Seeing the hopeful look on Ginny's face, Luna sighed. "You acted stupidly and rashly, but not maliciously."
"What should I do?" Sitting up on the bed, Ginny swiveled around and sat facing Luna with a very earnest look on her face. "How can I get them to forgive me?"
"You can't get them to forgive you, all you can do is see if they will. Which I think will happen, but the key to this is Harry." Seeing the look on her face, Luna smiled. "I asked Harry not to explain to Hermione about the potions and what you did for a couple of days, and he agreed."
"So I'm going to have to tell both of them? Can't I just talk to Harry first and then get him to help me break it to her?"
"There are two reasons that won't work. The first is that you acted against both of them; you need to apologize to both of them. They're together now, and I think that you're going to find that the concept of `they' is going to be in control from here on out." Pausing for a second, Luna watched Ginny mull that over.
"I can see that. If I go to Harry first, Hermione might see it as I'm trying to play him against her, not to mention she might think I don't consider what I did to her as important as what I did to him." Putting her hands on the side of her head, she moaned softly. "This is giving me such a headache. What's the second reason?"
"The second reason is that it's fairly difficult to sincerely apologize to Harry if you're heaving your toenails up while you're doing it."
"What?"
"Side effect of the Amortentia. The initial reaction lasts for a day, nothing we can do about that. After that, since you tried to meddle with true love, anytime you're knowingly within ten feet of Harry during the next year and a day, you'll suffer a relapse if Hermione's not present."
"Just bloody fantastic. We have classes together. If Hermione skives off a day, I might as well just go to the hospital wing since I'll truly be sick." Seeing the look on Luna's face, she blushed. "Bad example. Since Voldemort's dead and buried, I can't see anything earth shattering enough for Hermione to consider skiving off for. But what about Quidditch?"
"While I think you're going to find that our Head Girl will now have ample temptations to miss a class here and there, you do have a problem. However, there's a way around it. There's a temporary counter-curse that can be cast to allow you to be around Harry unchaperoned by Hermione." Seeing the hopeful look on Ginny's face, Luna smiled. "But Hermione's the only one who can cast it, and she gets to specify the duration and location."
"Great. This just keeps getting better and better. Anything else I should know."
Standing up, Luna smiled sweetly as she turned and nodded to the Matron and the Headmistress, both of whom were doing a very bad job at appearing disinterested in what was transpiring between Luna and Ginny. Turning back to Ginny, Luna's smile disappeared as she nodded firmly to Ginny.
"Your real punishment will probably come tonight after dinner." Seeing the puzzled look on Ginny's face, she sighed. "If this afternoon is going the way I think it's going for those two, they're going to walk into the Great Hall, hand in hand, with a sappy look on their faces that will let anyone, including the first years, know exactly what's happened between them."
"Merlin, no. Anything but that." Shaking her head, Ginny shut her eyes in horror.
"Hermione's probably going to want to gossip with her two best female friends. So you're going to sit there, listen to all the details about her afternoon with Harry, and you're going to be very happy for her." Looking very determined, Luna crossed her arms in front of her and glared.
"I'm happy for her, but this is just cruel. Can't I be happy for them without the details?"
"Didn't you tell her about all your snog sessions with Harry back during our fifth year?"
"Well, yes, but that was different."
"True, you'd used an illegal potion to steal him from her. It should have been her snogging Harry senseless all over school." Staring at Ginny, Luna watched her friend blush as she thought about it
"Oh, right. Sort of forgot about that. I can see how that weakens my case a bit."
"Ginevra?"
"Yes Luna?"
"Remember the birds."
"Right. Happy to get all the gory details about her day with Harry.
Turning away, Luna started walking towards the office. Stopping, she turned around and smiled at Ginny. Seeing the puzzled look on Ginny's face, she chuckled. "Better pray she forgives you totally before the wedding."
"Why? And isn't it a bit soon to be taking about a wedding?"
"Pffft. If those two make it to graduation day unmarried, I'll eat one of Hagrid's skrewts. Raw. Personally, I'm going to floo your brother and put a galleon on Christmas Eve. If she's still a bit annoyed with you, just imagine exactly how badly that bridesmaid's dress is going to clash with your hair."
"I'm so dead."
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