Tying the bowline.
Author's notes: Welcome to my fourth Ron/Luna-fic. This is based on a challenge issued on the Portkey Ron/Luna-forums.
Warnings: Just to get it out in the air, here are the other pairings beside Ron/Luna, that both this fic and I support. Harry/Hermione, Neville/Ginny, Fred/Angelina, George/Alicia and Lupin/Tonks. Some are canon, some are not, blabla, I don't care, though I prefer fanon L/T to canon L/T.
Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling, I can't stress that enough. I don't get money for this, they don't write about me in the papers, zip nada. I didn't invent the characters, unless they're extras, in which case I likely did invent them. The basic idea for this fic isn't even invented by me, I'm just using it to bring glory to the beloved Red Moon.
And now that the author is done with her rantings, here's the first chapter.
Chapter 1, The Announcement.
It was a sunny and bright May afternoon, and The Burrow was filled with bustling activity. Even more so than was usual when all of the children had still lived with their parents. It was time for the yearly reunion of the old D.A. members, a tradition that Harry had started a year after he had defeated Lord Voldemort. Every year on the first Saturday of May, everybody who had been a member of the D.A. would have a gathering where they would party and catch up with old friends. As this year's reunion would be held at The Burrow, old Mrs. Weasley had decided to take charge and organize the event.
"Ron, be careful with that table!" Mrs. Weasley shouted.
Ron suddenly noticed that he'd almost rammed the table he was levitating into the house. Sheepishly he corrected its course back towards the front lawn.
"My my, Ronniekins," said Fred as he shook his head in disappointment. "You're twenty five years old, yet you can't manage to move around a table for less than two minutes before you start goofing off."
"Yeah, some of us actually manages to do so in less than one minute," said George as he spiraled the table he and Fred had been transporting around the house.
Shaking her head, Mrs. Weasley pulled out her wand and prodded George's back.
"You're adults now," she said exasperatedly. "Can't you manage to be serious without having me to yell at you or threaten you with spells?"
"Don't worry, Molly," said Alicia Spinnet, showing up from nowhere to take George's wand away from him. "A girlfriend's kiss of bribery is usually more efficient in keeping them on the rug." And with that she gave George a sound kiss.
"I would argue against her," said George, "but she makes a damn valid point." Gently taking back his wand he evenly leveled the table down on the lawn. Mrs. Weasley walked up to Alicia and gave her a big hug.
"I'm so glad that you and Angelina are around to keep my boys down to Earth."
"We can keep ourselves down to Earth on our own, mum," said Fred indignately.
"Then why did you hire me to keep your checkbooks balanced?" Angelina Johnson asked as she walked in around the corner with a basket of muffins. Fred walked up to her and took the basket away from her while putting his arm around her shoulders.
"Because you're prettier to look at when you balance books, than my dear brother is. That and by balancing books, you in difference from him knows that it doesn't involve juggling."
"It doesn't?" asked George astonished. "Blimey, all these years that I've been wrong."
It was so nice to hear his family talking like this, thought Ron to himself as they got the tables and the chairs to their right places. Almost like it used to be when they were all living under the same roof. But seeing his brothers tease around with their girlfriends just reminded him of Luna. She would be showing up later on, dragging with her father. He had no idea how she was going to manage to get her father in on the DA reunion without him getting suspicious, but when he had asked her about it she had just smiled mysteriously and told him to leave that to her. She would never smile like that unless she had a fully functioning plan under way, so he decided to trust her on this one. It was difficult to focus on the task of arranging chairs though, as he kept thinking of what he and Luna had to tell everyone.
"Well, that is what we can do for now, until Harry and Hermione show up with that extra table," said Mrs. Weasley. "Unless Ginny and Neville beats them to it with the extra chairs."
"We'd need the table anyway to seat the chairs around, wouldn't we?" asked George.
"Of course that's true," said Mrs. Weasley, squirming a bit uncomfortably. She could have it very difficult at times to admit being wrong or not knowing what was the right thing to do. Particularily when it came to housework or raising children.
Suddenly there were a couple of big cracks in the air.
"Are we late?" asked a disheveled Hermione, her left hand on the table and her right clutching Harry's left hand.
"Sorry, that it took so long," said Harry. "But we've never apparated with furniture before."
"That's quite alright, Harry dear," said Mrs. Weasley. "In fact you're early. We just decided to start setting up the tables ahead of time, and we just happen to be ready for you now." With a flick from her wand she got the table rising up into the air, and started to redirect it to its correct position. Meanwhile Ron walked up to his two best friends.
"Harry, Hermione," he said as he grabbed their arms. "It's good to see you guys. Haven't seen you for the last month."
"Don't blame us," said Hermione laughing. "You're the one who moved with your girlfriend across the country."
"How are things with Luna, by the way?" asked Harry. "She isn't here yet, is she?"
"Things are great, and no. She hasn't gotten here yet, but she'll show up when the others arrive."
"It's amazing though, isn't it?" said Hermione looking over at the twins having the plates and utensils dance their way on the table. "I mean, that all of us who were in the DA have managed to keep in touch for these past years."
"Yeah…" said Harry. "That is amazing."
Right then there was a big fizzling crack in the air rapidly followed by several small pops.
"Did we get everyone?" Ginny asked her boyfriend.
"1, 2, 3, …. 10, 11, 12. Yes, I think so," answered Neville.
"Good," she said, turning to her brothers. "Well, here we are!"
"Oh Ginny," exclaimed Mrs. Weasley, making her way over to her youngest child. "It's been so long!" she continued as she drew Ginny into a bear hug.
"Mum," said Ginny, almost gasping for breath. "It's been since last week."
As the chairs were seated around the tables, Fred made a quick counting in his head.
"Hold on," he said. "There's thirty three chairs here, but with Mum and Dad we're only thirty."
"Harry invited Remus and Nymphadora to come for once. Oh, and Mr Lovegood is coming as well," answered Mrs. Weasley. "Didn't Ron tell you?"
"Must have slipped my mind," said Ron absently, as he tried to figure out how to fit a row of four chairs without anyone getting their legs in a twist by sitting in them.
"Reeeaaally," asked Fred with a mock suspicious tone in his voice.
Finally giving up on the chairs, Ron turned to his brother.
"What now?"
"Nothing," said Fred unconvincingly. "I just find it interesting that the father of your girlfriend since two years back has been invited and that you haven't told anyone besides mum about it. That's all."
Ron sighed to himself. Sometimes he wondered if his brothers ever really did grow up, or if they just refused to think that he did.
"There's really nothing suspicious about it," he told his brother, as he returned his focus to the chairs he had abandoned. "It just so happens that Mr Lovegood has been feeling a bit lonely nowadays, now that his only daughter has moved out of the house. Luna asked mum if it was okay that he came over to meet some people and have a bite, and mum agreed."
"Really? And you didn't tell anyone because…?"
"Because what was there to tell? A extra guest hardly makes any difference." Ron finally managed to get the chairs to fit together. Fred stared at him and sighed outloud.
"You know," Fred said, bitter disappointment evident in his voice. "you're not as funny anymore since you've stopped getting all excited about what people think of you."
"Blame the bad influence of my lovely girl." Ron said with a bright smile. It was funny how sometimes he just had to think of Luna to start smiling for no real reason.
"Yuck, now you're smiling for no appearant reason too. At least I haven't let Angelina have that effect on me."
"Really," purred Angelina, as she jumped forward out of nowhere, putting her arms around Fred's waist from behind. "Then what if I tickle your belly?"
"Ehm, ehh?" Fred tried to struggle himself loose. "I suppose it wouldn't help if I said that we're in public?"
Angelina seemed to be pondering the subject.
"I guess that will have to save you for now," she said and then turned to look at Ron's wondering face. "Well, I had to find some way of distinguishing between the two of them. Their tickle spots just turned out to be it."
"Are you ready, daddy?"
"Almost. I can't seem to find my glasses."
Thelonius Lovegood came out of his bedroom fully dressed in his suit, looking wildly about for his glasses. As his eyes came looking into the hallway they landed on his daughter, who was all ready to go in her long blue skirt and white blouse. She wore her hair down as always, and he couldn't help but thinking of her mother. Remembering that they had to get going, he returned his focus to the task.
"I could have sworn that I just put them down…" he mumbled to himself as he looked about in every corner.
Luna looked intently at her father. And then she walked up to him as he stood there scratching his head, and pulled his glasses out of his breast pocket.
"There they are!" she said triumphantly.
Mr. Lovegood stared at the glasses for a while before putting them on.
"Sometimes I don't know what I would do without you. It's quite astonishing that I've managed these past months without you."
"Well, as long as you don't get taken away by Corky Cubbers, I know that you can handle living on your own," she said as she gave him a big hug. Though it was hard to admit, even to Ronald, she had been quite worried about her father and his constantly absent mind. Moving in with Ronald seemed like a selfish decision to her, even if her father had told her that he'd be all right. But she really felt like her father could handle it now. And she knew it was time for her to get on with her own life, together with her Ronald.
"Time to go?" asked her father.
"Yes," she answered and then they apparated.
Ron turned around at the sound of two big pops, and came face to face with Luna and her father. He smiled and moved towards them.
"It's about time you two showed up, everyone else has already come," he said as he hooked his arm around Luna's waste.
"Dad had a bit of a problem finding his glasses," Luna told him as she looked around at all the familiar faces. Everybody who had been a member of the DA had showed up, except for that Marietta Edgecombe from her old house. Then again, Marietta had stopped receiving invites to the reunions after not having showned up to the first three ones. Luna caught sight of other friends from both Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, but decided to move her and Ronald towards her old friend Ginny. And the evening moved along with welcoming drinks and mingling, until they all got seated by the tables. The old friends were hardly hard pressed to sit by the tables, as Mrs. Weasley's homecooking invited them with it's aroma.
After having moved through the main course, talking and laughing together, Ron suddenly stood up and called for attention. As everybody started to quiet down, he looked around while beginning to talk.
"Well, ehhh… I, and Luna, just wanted to take this opportunity, now that practically all of mine and her family and friends are gathered here…"
Steadying himself with a deep breath, he continued.
"To give an announcement. We have namely decided to.."
He took a deep breath, to brace himself further for what he was about to say. Everybody were looking at him with expectation, wondering if he was going to finish the sentence, or just leave it there.
"Well, I asked her the question, and she answered yes. We are going to get married."