Author's Notes: This is written for my lovely Blu, who is my octopus. And xe also really likes Cho/Luna, so. XD
"Luna?"
The voice jolts you out of your reverie and you can't help the tremor that jerks your body, or the way your shoulders automatically hunch. The voice is friendly, though, if hesitant, and you raise your head to see Cho Chang standing in front of you, shifting from foot to foot. She looks nervous, unaccountably so, and you wonder if someone else has put her up to this. No one talks to you if they can help it.
"Yes?" you answer politely, your voice a bit dreamy, as it always is. Your fingers knot together in your lap, crumpling the handful of blue tissue paper that you were coaxing into origami birds.
"Would you, um," Cho swallows. Her cheeks stain red, and she looks at the ground like her question's written there. You take a surreptitious peek yourself, perhaps it is. Nothing but the same deep blue and bronze pile, though, and you glance back, capturing her eyes with your own.
"Would you go to the ball with me," Cho rushes out in a near-stammer, and your heart sinks somewhere down to the vicinity of your toes. Oh. That's what this is about. You don't take her seriously, of course. How can you? It's Cho Chang. She's more than you can ever hope for. You wonder what someone has over her to make her pull this.
"Um," you stall for time. You don't know what to say. Usually it's easy to dismiss the jokes, the cruel pokes and jabs and whispering behind pointed fingers. But not from Cho, the girl you've had a crush on since first year.
"It's okay if you don't want to," Cho says, her shoulders slumping a little. Disappointment glitters in her brown eyes, and you feel a brief flicker of hope stirring in your stomach. You chance a look around the common room. No one's paying attention to the two of you, locked in your own little tableau. No snickers, no whispers. Nothing.
"No, I do want to go," you finally pipe up and you can't help the way your voice shakes. "With you, I mean. If that's all right."
"Yeah," Cho smiles, and her hand brushes your hair for a moment, and it feels like the room's lit up, like the whole world's lit up, and you feel like you could fly.
"See you," you manage, and when she turns to leave, to go back to her friends in her side of the common room, you can't help but stop her, tugging a bit on her sleeve.
"Here," you mumble, and stuff a slightly crumpled origami bird into her hand.
"Thanks," Cho grins, and you smile back.