Prompts: Porcelain skin, denial
Theme: infidelity
Luna/Hermione
Hermione loved spending time with Luna, more than she'd admit to herself. She told herself every morning as she brushed her teeth to garble the words. "It's not romantic, it's a friend-love." They never even kissed. Never, ever, considered it.
That was what Hermione liked about their time, the closeness she craved so much since a childhood alone. She liked leaning against Luna's shoulder, the lack of pressure to dumb down conversation for others, she liked Luna's hands stroking her hair lovingly. Ron never did that, his hands almost never touching her face, his hands almost never touching her except when they shagged these days so even when they started out innocent always took a turn south within minutes and so she loved when Luna did this. It made her feel... Loved.
She liked escaping to Luna's little home, where there was no need to prove anything. No pressure from in-laws and husband to give up her job and have children now she'd married, no need to overwork more than even the other girls in the office to prove she was the Brightest Witch and therefore not just Ron Weasley's wife, no worries that she'd come home an hour later than usual and Ron would expect her to mother him because he didn't want to learn to use the muggle stove.
She sat against Luna in the sunlit meadow or by the fireside and just breathed, she and Luna would talk for hours, and those porcelain-skinned hands would stroke her hair lovingly, aimlessly, working out knots over and over so slowly. Hermione never wanted to leave, she wanted to stay by Luna's warm side forever, them and sunlight and the way it lit Luna's eyes.
"Still," she told herself. "We're not in love."