I love Harry Potter, but I don't own it. I also love Avatar: The Last Airbender, but I don't own that and neither does Ron or Luna. This fic takes place in Ron's third and Luna's second year, so it's not really Ron/Luna, but it's more something to explain how they could get close enough to get together. Also, Ron and Luna are the first ever wizarding Zutara shippers, which automatically makes them the coolest wizards ever.
Written for The Secret/Hidden Talent Competition at the HPFC.
Luna fell in love with Zuko ever since she saw his writing and drawing in a notebook she found in the library that didn't give a hint about to you it could really belong to. She knew that it sounded crazy, falling in love with someone just because they could create an engrossing story that would all of sudden make her want to run up to her dorm to pull it out and read it, because their drawings were sometimes so lifelike that Luna would start thinking of people looking like they could have been drawn by Zuko, because she didn't even know their name she had to pick something out from their story, but while Luna wasn't as crazy as everyone thought, she still wasn't the sanest person in world and she didn't care about all of that. She was just in love with this person. She didn't even know if they were a Zuko, but rather a Katara. She would make it work if they were though.
Zuko had created a world of benders of the elements water, earth, fire, and air, a world of flying bison and people acting weirdly if a bear turned out to be just a bear, a world full of horrible fathers, wonderful uncles, and kids meant to save the world. Zuko made her laugh with Aang's antics and Toph's response and Sokka's sarcasm; cry when Aang almost died and Sokka had to let Yue go and Zuko in the story had to realize that his father never really loved him; and she was constantly wishing for more, as they had only written to the day of black sun. She knew that Zukp could make a wonderful ending; her only requirement was that it involved the Zuko in the story and Katara realizing their love for each other. She supposed for them to make it though, she'd have to give back the notebook, but that involved knowing who Zuko was and she didn't know how she would manage that.
Luna just wished that she could meet Zuko, tell them that she loved him, tell him that whenever her House mates gave her a hard time, she would just read his story and it would make everything seem okay. She wished that she could meet them to ask them what made them start this. Did he just like Asian culture and stories of rag tag team of children saving the world, or was it something more. She wanted to ask him if he had the background of one of the characters and so, whose. Was it Katara and Sokka's who lost their mother and their father left to fight, leaving them to be taken care of by their grandmother and having to grow up to fast? Or was it Toph's, having parents that coddled him, never realizing his gifts and refusing to let them grow, forcing him to figure it out of his own? Maybe it was Aang's and he had everyone and everything he ever cared about gone in a flash. Perhaps it was story Zuko's, having a mother that would do anything to save him, but a father that would do anything to hurt him to help him gain power and a sister that loved to see his pain. She hoped that if that were the case though that he had an Uncle Iroh to help him, instead of that just being a wish to help him get through the pain.
Luna had tried to write her own ending to the story, but it never seemed to be as good as what Zuko's would be, mainly because Zuko could actually draw, unlike her. She did however think of a title that she was extremely proud of and thought that Zuko would be happy with it, since in his notes he actually wrote 'Need title'. It was Avatar: The Last Airbender and she just thought that it was the best title there could be for it. It captured the attention of someone, but it also was also nice. It was soft and quiet, not big and bold.
That was Zuko in her mind.
She had given up hope on ever finding him though until one day, all of a sudden she heard Ron Weasley say, "Have you been drinking cactus juice Harry?"
It was clear he hadn't meant to say it and Harry and Hermione obviously had no idea what he was talking about, but Luna did. Ron Weasley was her Zuko and she couldn't be happier.
Ron could never quite explain why exactly he made up his story. He really couldn't say how he thought up of it either except that the idea just seemed to fall into his head one day while he was reading a book about Asian witches and wizards and their contributions to the wizarding world. It was dead ass boring, but when his mind started to slip toward daydream land, it started to create this world, these people, and one big adventure. There were times when he thinking of ideas, or drawing them out, or writing the dialogue that he realized how much it seem it seem to collaborate with what was going on with Harry and Hermione and even himself, but then there were times when he was doing this that he really saw no connection at all between them.
Ron had always been able to draw and write and just think, but he hardly ever let anyone in on the secret, as it made him feel special. Important, like he could do anything and whenever he was doing one of those three things he felt like he could. He knew he complained how he anything he did wouldn't be special, because one of his brothers was bound to have done it first and he loved his family, but they could not draw worth a damn, so why wouldn't he be boasting his ability to the rooftops? Ron wondered about that many times and the only thing he could come up with was the fact that while he wanted people to know he was special, he didn't need it. He stopped complaining after that. The only person who did know was Percy and that was a complete accident that involved a glass of milk, three Galleons, and revenge on Oliver Wood. Ron never knew the full details and he wasn't sure he wanted to after what Percy made him draw of Wood, though Ron did learn the best way to make a picture look almost exactly like a photograph was to draw it in near darkness and then charm it to move.
That was why losing his notebook in the library had been horrible. It contained everything, and by everything, he meant everything. All of his notes, all of his thoughts, all of his ideas, not to mention all of his drawings and dialogues were in that notebook, though it would actually be wrong to say everything as it was missing one important detail. It was missing his name. Ron had done everything; absolutely everything to make sure that there wasn't a single detail in that book to connect back to him, thinking when he did it that it would be better that the book was lost forever than anyone thinking that he did it, as frankly, he was always slightly embarrassed by his ideas. He wondered if that was part of the reason why he never told anyone about it also.
It was losing it that made Ron realize how much a part of that world he had become. He sometimes wished that he could meet his characters but at other times he just wanted them to shut up and get out of his head. He would meet someone and something, some little quirk about them, and he would think 'That's something that Katara would do.' or 'Aang does that all the time, I just never realized it until now.'.
He wondered if all authors felt this way.
He tried to write the ending, but he couldn't. It was like all of a sudden, a stopper went into his ideas, refusing to let even one little drop to come out. He also noticed that he was referencing it a lot too, usually leaving the people he was talking to confused and slightly upset when they thought that he had insulted them, like when he accidently called George a bender. He meant in reference to George controlling the water, seemingly wandless with his wand hidden in his sleeve, looking very much like Katara would. It took everything Fred and Harry had to stop George from beating Ron to a bloody pulp, but that wasn't as bad as when he accidently called Hermione 'sugar queen.'
Ron didn't know however that it would be his continued references to his story that would be what made him find his story.
As soon as Luna got over the shock of whom Zuko really was and what Ron had said, she began to smile bigger than she ever had before. She had always had a crush on Ron, especially since they lived so close to each other and had played with each other was kids, but she doubted that Ron had remembered that and now probably didn't even know that she existed.
Ron had turned out to be Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation though; her version of Prince Charming, and it was like a dream come true. Luna followed him after she heard that, luckily when she heard him say that it had turned out to be that they had both just finished up their last class of the day. She followed him until she could get him alone and give him the notebook that she constantly carried around in her school bag, the one that when Michael Corner took and tried to hide and for the first time since starting Hogwarts she fought for her stuff, so that she would be able to give it to Zuko when she found him. So that he could finish up his story, though now she felt it was slightly hers a little bit too. She didn't even notice that after she was done with Michael, her stuff hadn't been touched since.
She was sneaky with following them and she was fairly certain that they hadn't even noticed in the least, which she was sort of worried about that because shouldn't the savior of the wizarding world and his two best friends know when someone was following them? It didn't exactly inspire confidence in her.
Her chance to confront Ron alone came when Hermione needed to look something up in the library and Professor Lupin came up to Harry, needing to speak to him. Ron was left all alone, staring into space, under the giant oak near the Great Lake and that's when she made her move.
She came running up to Ron, butterbear necklace and radish earrings mixing and following with her dirty blonde hair behind her, she scared Ron when she sat down next to him and said, "Hey," softly.
It was rather funny watching Ron jump and making the contents of his, Harry's, and Hermione's bags scatter around the oak, and while she helped him clean it up, he asked her, "Who are you?"
Luna wanted to both sigh and cry at the same time and she was surprised by her reaction. She had known that there was a very good chance that he wouldn't remember her, but she had hung onto the hope that he did and would be like, "Luna, I haven't seen you in ages! How've you been? Oh, are you the one that has my notebook? Well what do you think of it and aren't Zuko and Katara meant to be with each other?" happy and cheerful to see her, though she did wonder why Ron sounded like a middle aged man in her mind.
Luna pretended though like her heart hadn't just been stomped on and smiled almost a little too brightly and said, "I'm Luna Lovegood. Second year. We actually knew each other when we were little; I'm from Ottery St. Catchpole too."
Ron nodded, clearly having no idea who she was, but choosing to believe her anyway. "Okay, but why are you here talking to me?"
Luna felt like sighing again, only this time with no tears. Did all boys have no tact? "Because I found your notebook in the library."
It was also funny to see Ron's expression when she said that.
Ron felt like kissing this girl, yelling at her, and bursting into sobs in her arms when she said that. He didn't blame her for not giving it back to him before now, she just now probably figured it out, but still he was just so glad to have his notebook that he couldn't really care about anything else right now, like dreamy, amused smirk that Luna had on her lips as she pulled the notebook out of her bag to give to him and he took it like a greedy child on Christmas morning, a smile lighting up his face. He just honestly didn't care.
He did care though when she said, "It's a really good story, you know."
Ron knew that it was ridiculous to assume that she hadn't read the story with as long as she had it, but they still didn't stop from getting furious at her. As he slowly looked up, eyes blazing with fury . . . Luna ignored it and continued talking. "I love Toph, I think she's hilarious. And Azula's just creepy. But Aang is so sweet. I love the relationship between Zuko and Katara; it's my favorite thing about Avatar!"
Ron blinked, the fury gone from his eyes now. A relationship between Zuko and Katara hadn't even occurred to him, thinking that he'd probably just do Katara and Aang, though now that she had mentioned it those two would go good together, and he had taken the calling his story The Legend of Aang. . . . "What do you call it?"
Luna blinked. "I've been calling it Avatar: The Last Airbender. What have you been calling it?"
Ron smiled. "Something not as good as that. Your name's Luna, you say? Well Luna can you tell me what you think about Katara making a death threat against Zuko after he asks to join the gang?" He was surprised by the idea, but now that he said it seemed perfectly natural and frankly had to be done.
Luna blinked again before smiling. "I think that she wouldn't be Katara if she didn't."
Ron leaned back against the tree and then patted the grass next to him. Luna quickly shifted to sit there. Ron got out a pencil and then went on to his next idea. "So I was thinking that at the very end, Zuko saves Katara's life when Azula directs some of her lighting at him. . . ."
Luna nodded vigorously. "Well, of course. . . ."
Long live Zutara and Runa! Please review.
