The next morning she was woken up by Molly, who must have sensed the mood of her daughter. The worried looking woman came to Ginny's room at half past eight, opened the curtains and announced, 'Ginny, dear, you have to get yourself occupied! You've been slumping through the house like a ghost for several days now! I can understand that you are bored because nobody has time to play with you - but you can go and meet some friends from school!'

'Mom, I'm not a first year anymore! Don't talk to me like I'm eleven. I don't wanna go outside, I'll be in the way again. And most of my friends from school are on holiday with their parents...' Ginny trailed off. She knew that this was just an excuse so she didn't have to make a real effort.

'Hermione is coming over for the wedding in a couple of days. Until then, why don't you go and visit the Lovegood girl? She's always so nice to talk to. Please just leave the house for some hours, so you can get a bit of distraction and I can clean up your room for the wedding,' Molly insisted.

Ginny sighed and got up. She knew from the tone of her mother's voice that she had no choice.

'At least let me have some breakfast, okay mother?' With this she grabbed some shorts and shirt and left for the shower. Her mother still looked concerned but said nothing more.

After the breakfast that she expanded as long as possible at purpose, she strode through the garden and left it through the gate at the back. All the way up the hill behind the burrow she muttered to herself how she hated this summer and the wedding and her mother in particular. But when she reached the top of the small hill, her thoughts were distracted by the view of the Lovegood's house. It was surrounded by various blooming bushes and small trees and looked to magical and colourful that Ginny forgot to breathe for a moment. So when she walked the remaining distance to her classmate's door, she forgot about her bad mood and that she didn't want to come in the first place. Instead, she felt quite happy inside and for the first time this summer her steps were light and easy. As she was just about to knock, the front door flew open and Luna stepped outside, wearing a flowery summer dress and a large towel around her neck. She looked at Ginny questioningly and after none of them had said anything for almost 30 seconds she said, 'Hey Ginny, I saw you coming down the hill, you looked like you were in a really bad mood. Is everything okay? Do you need some help getting rid of all those wrackspurts in your ears?'

'Erm, well, no...Thank you Luna. Everything is alright. I was just bored at home so I came to meet you.'

Luna smiled and then asked with her airy voice, 'Well I was just about to go to the pond. My father says that the Gnomes have finally left it, so I wanted to swim for a while. You wanna come along?'

Ginny thought about it for a moment but had to refuse because she didn't bring her bathing suit or a towel.

'That won't matter,' Luna told her. 'You can use my towel, too. And I don't have a bathing suit either.'

So Ginny was dragged along to the pond wondering why suddenly it mattered to her whether she wore a bathing suit. When going to swim in the pond with her brothers, she had never bothered to strip down to her knickers. But they were family and Luna was just a friend. Whilst Ginny was still thinking about the bathing suit or rather the lack of it, they arrived at the lawn next to the water. Luna dropped the towel to the ground and braided her long blonde hair so it wouldn't disturb her. When Ginny just started to fumble at the fly of her shorts awkwardly, Luna asked her for help with the zip at the back of her dress. Ginny hesitated. She was confused about why she was suddenly so shy about these things, as she had never had a problem with being naked in front of people, neither her brothers nor the other girls in her Quiddich team or her dorm room. But today with Luna she just felt different, as if it was somehow more private.

'Ginny, are you sure everything's alright?' Luna's dreamy voice got her attention back to the things in front of her.

'Yeah, sure,' Ginny mumbled and reached for the zipper. She carefully opened it without touching the blondes back more than necessary and was about to turn around to give Luna some privacy when the other girl had already dropped the dress all the way down. Apparently she hadn't worn underwear at all under it and her pale skin glistened at the sun's reflection at the lake. When Luna turned back to see if Ginny would follow her example, the redhead got a good view of everything there was to see about the slender girl. As Ginny stared at Lunas small and beautiful breasts she suddenly felt a now familiar sensation between her legs. Her stomach tingled and her panties were getting wet again and she couldn't do anything about it. With a small whimper she turned around and disappeared behind a small group of trees and bushes, throwing a 'Sorry, gotta pee!' at Lunas direction. When she was sure nobody could observe her, she frantically pulled at her shorts that wouldn't leave her hips easily as she still hadn't opened the fly. She jumped from one leg to the other as she felt the moist fabric of the panties rubbing against her crotch. Finally she managed to push the shorts down her legs and squatted next to a tree. But again, once she was at it, she didn't need to go as badly as she thought. Nevertheless she unclenched her closing muscle and let go, just at the moment when Luna appeared around the corner. Embarrassed to her very bone Ginny got up and pulled her shorts back on as fast as she could. Luna's pale face was now shimmering slightly pink as she apologized over and over, promising she was only worried because Ginny looked so shocked when she left so she went after her to see if she was fine. Ginny was staring at her feet all the time and barely listening to Lunas apologies. In the course of two days she had nearly peed her pants while touching herself for the first time and had been watched while taking a piss in the bushes. It was just too much. Tears were burning behind her eyes and she managed a stuttered 'Gotta go home now' in Lunas direction before she ran off.

At home, she dashed past her brothers who had just finished Quiddich practise and locked herself up in her room. She didn't answer to anyone who knocked at her door and cried herself to sleep way past midnight.

When she woke up late the next morning, her view still a bit blurry and her arms and legs heavy, she had the hope that everything had just been a bad dream. But reality came crashing back in as soon as she went downstairs. Her mother greeted her happily and announced that 'the lovely Lovegood girl' was waiting in the garden because she wanted to meet with Ginny. Molly didn't seem to notice that Ginny's face turned white at her words and she choked at her last bit of toast.

'I told her that you were still sleeping and that you would come to see her as soon as you're awake and presentable.'

That was her keyword. Hastily she swallowed down the rebellious bit of toast and ran off for the bathroom. Remembering that she'd need some fresh clothes she hurried back out again and to her room, where she searched for a new shirt and her favourite bra. All the while her mind was rushing through a million of possible reasons why Luna would want to see her after what had happened yesterday and she wondered if she herself could muster enough self-esteem to face Luna again. After she found the bra at last (stacked tidily in the drawer as Molly had indeed used the time of Ginny's absence for cleaning) she took a quick shower in the bathroom and brushed her teeth. Her hair was still wet, so she tied it into a messy bun and jumped down the stairs. When she passed her amused mother in the kitchen, who was seemingly happy to find her daughter so active again, she slowed down and came to a halt right next to the backdoor. What if Luna was going to make fun of her? What if she wanted to tell her that their friendship was over because she left her standing alone at the pond so suddenly?

There was no use in overthinking it, she decided after a minute of hesitating. So she pushed open the back door and approached Luna, who was sitting on a small stone wall and talking to some caterpillars on the flowers nearby. Ginny took a deep breath and was just about to greet her as her classmate looked up and got ahead of her.

'Hey Gin, you probably want to ask why I'm here, am I right?'

'Hrgm...'

'Well, see, I thought you were pretty disturbed yesterday and you looked so confused and ashamed and I couldn't just leave it at that.'

Ginny wished Luna had indeed left it at that, because while the dreamy girl spoke, she felt her head turn as red as her hair again. She couldn't bare how Luna talked so freely about her shame and the event in general and just wanted to sink into the ground really quickly.

But Luna looked like she would have none of that. She stood up and pointed to the road that led away from the house across the fields. 'We could take a walk if you want. I feel like your mother would be glad to see us being outside in the sun.' Ginny could not find an argument against this, so she followed along wearily, not quite ready to talk about the events of the last day. But Luna seemed to be relaxed and happy and went ahead to show her a colourful butterfly that had been sitting on the path. Ginny relaxed a bit and wondered if she was making too much fuss. But she couldn't help but feel embarrassed and not even Lunas chattering about some special flowers she picked last week could make her feel better. She had to admit that the other girl's presence was calming, though. She watched the blonde hair of her friend getting caught in the breeze and admired the unusual but no less appealing grace with which Luna roamed about the road and the field. When Luna returned to the track next to Ginny, she held a cornflower in hand that she then placed carefully in Ginny's hair after asking for permission. The Weasley girl stood frozen to the spot all the while Luna touched her hair with light fingers. Even when she had stepped back and moved on, Ginny still didn't dare to breathe.

After a while Luna started to talk about their original topic. She told her that there was no need to feel bad and that her suggestion to go to the pond might have taken Ginny by surprise and she didn't mean to bring her in this situation. Luna even told her that she had been in a similar situation two years ago when a cousin of hers stayed for the summer and had caught Luna on the loo because she forgot to lock the door. She managed to describe the whole story in such a funny way, mentioning that said cousin had already opened his trousers and was pushing them down when he entered the room, so they were basically even, that Ginny forgot her own embarrassment and had to laugh out loud.

Now Luna beamed at her and pointed back towards the direction of the lake.

'Wanna give it another try tomorrow? This time I'll pack a Bikini, so no worries about that.'

Ginny suddenly felt very self-conscious but nodded anyway.

Luna escorted her back to the Burrow and promised to pick her up the next day. Then she left for her own house and Ginny found herself smiling sheepishly as she headed upstairs to her room. She opened her window and glanced over at the hill where she could still see a blonde girl strolling through the grass, occasionally picking up some more flowers.

This night it was hard for Ginny to fall asleep not because she was crying but because she was recalling each and every moment of her walk with Luna. She had put the flower from her hair into an old and empty pumpkin juice bottle and placed it on her bedside table. When she finally drifted off to sleep, it was the last thing she saw.