For Lady Phoenix Fire Rose's One Hour Challenge. I was given the pairing GinnyLuna & the title Stars of Fire. I don't own Harry Potter. A little AU towards the end.
"There are two things that could happen tonight." Ginny says. "We could either die, or we could live. I suggest that we live."
Luna nods, and then she speaks with the most clarity Ginny has ever heard her speak with. "I hope you make it through, Ginny."
"So do I." Ginny replies. "So do I."
/
There are flashes of light, burning brighter than anything the two young girls have seen before, and they're scared out of their minds, but they're brave. Isn't that what bravery is all about, really? Being scared, absolutely petrified of something, but doing it anyway.
Ginny looks over to Luna, seeing a flash of her bright hair, and seeing that she's still alive during the battle. She doesn't smile at her, because she's too busy fighting off one of the more skilled death eaters, but as she dodges curses she thinks of Luna, thinks of that bright blonde hair, and she's smiling inside, even as she's sending curses flying at every Death Eater she can find.
The adrenaline pumps through her, and she can't see Luna anymore, and she's scared, she's absolutely petrified. She needs her, Christ, she always needs her. She wants to see her beside her, wants to hear her talking about nargles or crumple horned snorcaks. She kissed Harry, but the more she thinks about it, the more she wonders if she really loves him, or if he was just someone so famous that she longed to be with him. She thinks it's the latter.
Luna is different, she decides. She's beautiful, inside and out. Ginny's never thought of these things before, about liking girls in the way she's supposed to like boys, because she'd never really needed to think about it before. She concludes that it's all just a label, really. Does it even matter? All of those words and terms are only labels that are set there to define people, and maybe Ginny Weasley doesn't want to be defined. Maybe she wants to be a blazing inferno, a supernova shooting in the sky that nobody can really explain, but someone that nobody can deny. The more she thinks of the image, the more she likes it.
Then she realises that it would be a lonely life. So maybe if there was a supernova by her side, maybe if they shot through the sky together, maybe then she could be happy, happy, burning through the sky.
Then Ginny remembers that she's lost Luna in the Battle, and she doesn't know where she is, and she needs to find her, because if she doesn't, Ginny isn't sure how she can go on.
/
Luna has tears freely streaming down her face as she hides behind the pile of rubble, occasionally shooting out curses to Death Eaters within her range. She looks around her—her beloved Hogwarts, falling to the ground. She tells herself that this isn't how it's meant to be, this isn't how it's supposed to go. The world isn't supposed to fall apart on one day, it isn't all supposed to fall down, chaos swirling around, and Ginny is supposed to be beside her, because they're best friends, right? She's never been good with love, and yet she thinks that maybe they're more than best friends. There's something special about Ginny, something that she loves, but she can't quite pinpoint it. Maybe it's her blazing hair, maybe it's the way she laughs, the way she smiles, or maybe it's the fact that she's Ginny, and nothing and nobody can stop her.
Ginny is a star, Luna decides. She burns and blazes through the world, lighting up the night sky, her beauty and radiance lighting up everyone's world. The tears stop for a while, as Luna thinks of Ginny, and carries on shooting curses, saving a girl from the Avada Kedavra as Luna fires a curse at a particularly fearsome death eater. Luna knows that she's not the most courageous, hidden behind a pile of rubble whilst the braver students and teachers fight out in the open, but she doesn't feel like she's the brave type. She fades into the background, always, that's how it works. She doesn't really mind though, not when Ginny is in the foreground, shining and burning bright. She spots Ginny, firing curses at Death Eaters, fighting with blood pouring down her lip, and Luna thinks of how brave Ginny looks, and most of all, how beautiful she looks.
She rises up from behind her pile of rubble, begins cursing Death Eaters, and joins the battle fully.
She feels like she's doing her part. While Ginny is there, she's convinced she can come to no harm.
/
Ginny kneels beside Fred's body, crying all of her tears out, and yet she feels like she's full of an eternal stock of tears—she could cry forever, and nothing could stop her. An arm wraps around her, and she looks to her side to see Luna, her hair matted with blood and mud, but she still looks beautiful, or at least, she does to Ginny.
"I'm sorry." Luna says, looking down at Fred—or the thing that used to be Fred, because Ginny is certain there is no trace of Fred left in that shell.
Ginny looks down. "He died fighting." she replies. "He'd be happy, I think."
"You aren't." Luna observes.
"No." Ginny shakes her head. "No, I'm not."
Luna takes her hand and squeezes it tight. They're not ready, not yet. There's trauma and pain and hurt and lost loves after the war, and they're broken, but not beyond repair.
If Luna has taught Ginny one thing, it is that there is always hope.
/
It's exactly one year after the Battle of Hogwarts, and the memorial service is being held there. Luna and Ginny sit together, and their hands meet, somehow, and they sit in silence, squeezing one another's hand reassuringly when it gets all too much. It's almost unbearable, thinking of the Battle, thinking of the people who died, thinking of everything that they lost that day, all of the things they will never be able to get back.
But, as the man leading the service reminds them, there is always hope. There is always something. There is always something for all of them.
Ginny is a blazing star, and although Luna maybe fades into the background, together they are stars of fire, burning the brightest. There is always hope for them, always hope for them to shine their very brightest.
/
One autumn morning, Luna kisses Ginny, in a whirl of leaves and wind and love. It doesn't take her by surprise, it's been a long time coming, and they're happy that they've finally made the move to be together. Maybe it was always meant to be, maybe it was written in the stars, or maybe it was just two lost girls that always came back to each other that finally realised they belonged together. They burn bright, even when they're not trying. They know that it's not going to be easy, but they have each other, and that's all that matters. They are stars of fire, eternally blazing in the autumn sky.
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