Pushing back a strand of dirty blonde hair, Luna Lovegood stood up from her desk, scattering Colour-Changing Ink and quills as she grabbed her bag, slung it over her shoulder and charged off.

Ginny Weasley looked after her, then rolled her eyes at her two friends, who giggled in harmony with her own laugh, then linked her arms on either side and marched out of the classroom together.

Later

"Lu?"
Luna kept walking, a pale shadow in the dark.
"Luna!"
Luna turned her head briefly, allowing her best friend to see the glint of tears on her cheeks, then stuck two fingers up behind her and turned a corner forcefully.
"Luna, please come here," Ginny shouted desperately, then lowered her voice as she half-sprinted around the corner to see Luna perching on a bench, head bowed.

"Aren't you worried someone will see us together?" Luna's voice shook on the last word and she turned away, sniffing furiously and scrubbing her face viciously with her sleeve.
"No," Ginny said, hating the fact that she automatically looked around to check that nobody was following them.
"Yeah, you are," Luna muttered.
"I'm not, Lu," Ginny said, tentatively reaching her hand out to skim Luna's back.
She jerked away crossly.

"Luna, please listen to me; it was all a mistake. I didn't mean you; I was talking about...Harry," she said, wildly plucking a name out of midair and grasping at it like a lifeboat, "It's 'cause he's been...trying to make me do stuff," she added. "And I don't want to do it. So I was telling Alex and Danni about it. And I said 'what a freak, she's such a loser' because I was talking about him, and I was calling him a girl, and - " she broke off, angry tears welling up in her eyes.
"Look, just turn round and look at me, OK?" she burst out.

"You're still with Harry?" Luna chuckled softly.
"Yeah," Ginny said, so startled by the change of track that she sat down heavily on the stone bench and blinked at the girl sitting beside her.
"Never thought that'd last," Luna said throatily, swallowing back the tears that were now drying on her face. "I mean, no offence; I'm certain he's nice and everything but have you seen him? God, Gin - Ginny," she said quickly, as Ginny's face lit up, "He looks like an absolute twat, to be fair."

Ginny shook her head, half laughing. "I know," she admitted.

"Are we even going to talk about what happened at Lavender's party?" Luna said suddenly.
She turned round to face the girl sitting very close beside her and slid one hand a little further along the bench, but turning her head to make it seem innocent.

"I...Luna...I don't... I don't really know," Ginny confessed, blushing furiously and looking down at her knees, which were pressed together tightly.

"Relax," Luna sighed, moving both of her hands to her own knees. Ginny did relax, slightly, her shoulders slumped and she leaned her forehead against the wall. She drew back, wincing, then giggled. "It's cold," she noted, and then continued giggling.

Her laugh was infectious; a bubbling rush of medium-pitch that soared out of her mouth and echoed around the silent halls. Luna stifled her own laughter; it was hard not to laugh when Ginny was; and stood up.

"I guess we're not going to talk about it, then," she said darkly.

"Come on," Ginny protested. "It was just... you know, we'd had Firewhisky and it was all a bit of a blur and I swear Ron had put something in my drink that made me feel more... I don't know -" she giggled nervously again "-excited than normal..."

"Yeah, I figured that," Luna said. She turned around and made to walk down the corridor.

"And it frightened me," Ginny blurted out suddenly, grasping Luna's elbow.

"What did?"

"Everything," Ginny sighed. "I'm not a lesbian, Lu."

"I never said you were," Luna said, shaking her arm from Ginny's grip and taking a few steps down the corridor.

"And you're probably not, as well," Ginny said, desperately.

"What do you mean?" Luna asked, startled. She'd known she'd liked boys and girls since she was twelve years old; it was times like this when she wished that her mother was still alive; she had attempted to tell her father in a shaky and hesitant voice, and he had listened and comforted her, but he never related to her in the same way afterwards.

"You might just have been drunk," Ginny said earnestly. "It's okay, Lu, I won't tell anyone. It's just, even if I was a lesbain, you're not..." She tailed off, looking horrified.

"Not what?" Luna asked coldly.

"Not... a Griffindor," Ginny said cleverly. "So people think it's weird that we'd hang out. So... that's why I pretend to not notice you in the corridors, and why I never really talk to you in class and stuff."

"Look, Ginny," Luna said. "I like you; I really like you, as more than a friend. No, look at me, right? Thanks. But I'm not going to do anything about it, ever again. We were drunk, like you said. So it didn't mean anything to you, fine, it meant something to me. But if you don't want anything to happen, nothing will happen."

"Thanks... Thanks, Luna," Ginny said dazedly. She stood up and walked away, shaking her head doggedly as she went.

Luna sat back down on the stone bench, watching as Ginny walked away from her.