Pickled Pears

By Sashi Mizumoto

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter! I'm not making any money! This is valid through the whole story, so I don't want to write this anymore.

A/N: I haven't added written anything for a long time. I thought my muse had deserted me. But, after an extremely long hiatus, I am back! I may be a little slow at updating, as I am rewritting all of my fanfictions. I guess I should never really give up on my little muse. I hope everyone likes this, I haven't written a Harry Potter fanfiction in a very long time. At first, I wondered about whether or not I should post all of this story at once so as not to torture the readers with suspense, but I decided against this. There will be a weekly update, unless I note otherwise. And ususally, it's for a good reason. With all of this said, please enjoy 'Pickled Pears'! Mind you, I changed some things from the first five books to suit my needs of course. ;)

Prolouge

To put it simply, our hero, Ronald Weasley, was depressed.

At the end of 5th year, Hermione Granger, the bookish young woman, and Harry Potter, one of the most famous young men in the wizarding world, started to date. However, poor Ronald had been pining away for Hermione since 2nd year.

Even he had not realized his feelings until then, until that annoying prick, Gilderoy Lockhart, showed up. When he saw her blushing whenever she was around him, Ron felt a deep pain in his heart, and a great anger swelling up in his head. However, when he had seen her lying in the hospital wing, when she had succumbed to the gaze of the basilisk, he was startled to discover that his heart had fluttered. He cared for her, and he was in extreme anguish to see her in such a sorry state. He assumed that was what helped him jump into the Chamber with such determination.

However, Ron had hoped that for once, he would be lucky in the love area of his simple life. He soon decided this was a naïve thing to ask for, as he never had had any luck there. Harry, however, seemed to have the opposite problem. He had trouble keeping the girls away! Sure, there were a few times when rumours had sprung up and then everyone would avoid him, but by the end of the school year, everything was fine. Well, with the exception of 4th year. That and 5th year were probably the darkest.

Ron's mother, Molly Weasley, had always repeated a saying to him. A little plump but with a strong yet kind heart, she was never very good with words. But whenever she gave this advise to Ron, this cliché little line, he always felt a little bit better.

"Ron, just look for the silver lining."

So far, he had yet to see what he could consider a silver lining on this situation. He had received a letter from Harry shortly after the begininng of the summer. Ron had greeted Hedwig warmly, and put out some food and water for her. As she nipped playfully at his fingers, he unrolled the parchment away from her talons, not knowing the news that was awaiting him.

Hey Ron!

How are you doing? My summer's been lousy. Ever since Sirius and I have started to live together, he has had a hard time going outside. Maybe because people have been hunting for him for about 3 years? Anyway, I'm having a hard time persuading him to go outside. That stupid Peter, fouling him up like that. So, have you heard from anyone else lately? I heard that Seamus has gone off to Ireland. Heh, lucky bloke… Actually.. I was never the one to beat around the bush, but I guess I want to be a tad delicate with this situtation. Um, have you heard from Hermione lately? In case you have, then you have heard the news. In the event you didn't, I guess I'll be the one to tell you. Hemione and I have officially started dating. There's just, something about her. Maybe it's her kindness for others, or her sensitivity. Remember when we first saw her and all we could think about was how snobbish she sounded? Hermione almost beat the tar out of me when I told her that… Oh crud, Hermione's here. Don't want her to see this, eh? Well, I bet you have things to do and homework to do. Oh god, I'm starting to sound like 'Mione too! Best wishes to you Ron. I hope we can see each other before the end of the summer.

From, Harry

Ron had read all of this very carefully, rereading parts of it in case he had missed something vitally crucial. Was this a joke? Was his best friend "pulling his chain", as Americans put it? The letter slipped from his hands and fell lightly to the floor. Feeling his cheeks heat up with anger, he stomped over to his desk and roughly opened a drawer, pulling out a thin piece of parchment. He quickly dipped his quill into the ink, resulting in a huge ink blot on the letter. Disregarding this fact completely, he began to write with a verosity he had never seen in himself before.

During this plot in our story, our heroine, Luna Lovegood, was reading the Quibbler, her eyes scanning the page meacingly as if searching for some sort of a hidden message. As she neared the end of this specific issue, a small picture on the bottom of a page caught her eye. She looked down in shock and a small caption read:

Harry Potter and the Mysterious Hermione: A Couple?

The article turned out to be strung from rumours of them being seen together during the summer vacation. Luna sighed and shook her head. She racked her brain to try and find an excuse as to why her father would publish something of this nature. Usually this was left to the liars at the Daily Prophet and Witch Weekly.

Thinking of Harry Potter only made her remember of his best friend, Ronald Weasley. He was a kind boy with a soft face but shocking red hair. She was clearly infatuated by him, or she thought it wasn't that surprising. She could remember more than once when she had looked at him with a dreamy quality, or with her cheeks heating up from the blood rushing to her head. Whenever she had been around him her knees would go weak. It was either a symptom of love, or there were some nargles in the immeadiate area. Deciding to go with the more romantic hunch instead, she decided that she was in love. With Ronald Weasley. There was a kindness in him that could even outshine Harry Potter's. Whenever Ronald talked of his friends, he had a sincere tone and he truly cared about their well-being. Harry, on the other hand, just wanted to get away from them to protect them. How was going away from your friends making them feel any better? Wouldn't you want to be near your friends so you know they are perfectly safe?

As Luna Lovegood rolled this around in her mind, she heard a sharp tap against the window. She whirled her head around, her blonde hair getting in the way of her vision. Pulling it back into a ponytail, she walked across the room to let in the large tawny owl that had appeared. She pulled the envelope from the creature, placing the heavy envelope down on the table. She walked into her spacious kitchen and pulled out some lettuce from the refridgerator and took out a fresh water bottle, pouring some water for the poor owl. As she settled down and looked back at what she had received, she realized it was the annual Hogwarts letter. She ripped it open excitedly, but was a little more than shocked when she saw an unusually casual letter stuffed in there.

Dear Miss Luna Lovegood,

Due to some recent interactions between you and some Gryffindor students, I have thought it best that you were to switch houses as soon as this new school year begins. I have arranged for the new Head Boy and Head Girl to show you around, and to help you for the first few weeks. I hope you have had a pleasant summer, and if you have any questions, do not be so shy as to hide them.

Sincerely,

Professor A. Dumbledore

Luna smiled happily, her eyes twinkling in excitement. "Ronald… I hope this will be as happy a time for you as it is for me."

A/N: Well, this was kinda hard for me to write. I find it's quite hard to catch Luna's weird behaviours. And to be perfectly honest, I don't know how to write her thoughts all that well. xD; If anyone has any ideas, PLEASE help me by putting some ideas in the comments! And do NOT ask to be in the story, there are no original characters.