Chapter Two; Arguments, 1473 and blinding flashes.

Two days could not have gone slower for Ron. He spent most of his time at work, catching up on paper work and not so patiently telling the newest auror in the office where he went wrong on his last raid. Eventually Ron just sent the kid – he couldn't remember his name, it was something plain like Herman or Rupert – to Harry's office. Harry was far better at dealing with the idiot new kids than Ron was.

Both nights he would return home and proceed to find any wine that Hermione had hiding around the house. He rarely found any, but he always felt better for looking before he settled down for the evening. The night before he was due to meet Luna, he found an entire box of mulled wine in the cupboard under the sink.

Hermione had walked into the room just as he was taking the box into the backyard to throw into the bin, and she flew into a rage, screaming at him and desperately trying to take the box from him.

Ron had calmly given her the box, allowed her to pick up two bottles, and then sternly told her that they were going to give the rest of the box away, otherwise he was going to send her to Ginny's for the week. Hermione knew that both Ginny and Harry wouldn't allow her even to smell the wine, let alone drink any.

Hermione had conceded, but sulked for the rest of the night, pointedly ignoring Ron every time he tried to speak to her and successfully making his night worse than it normally was for him. The thought of seeing Luna the next morning had him making a little more effort to not lose his temper with Hermione than usual, even though she didn't seem to really notice.

He couldn't help but wonder how both he and Hermione had lasted this long together, being this miserable, and how much longer it would take before one of them just walked out.

He didn't want to find out.

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Ron stepped into the Leaky Cauldron the next morning, still reeling slightly from the Knight Bus ride to find Luna at the same table they had sat at together two days previously, almost bouncing out of her seat with excitement.

'Hello, Ron!' Luna called out, waving. Ron couldn't help but smile immediately and wave back, weaving between the tables as quickly as he could to give Luna a hug. Luna hesitated in surprise, but hugged him back just as tightly as he was hugging her. Both of them could tell that the other person needed some comfort, and that comfort could only come to them in the form of a hug.

'How are you, Luna?' Ron asked when they broke apart.

'I'm fine. How is everything at home for you, Ron?' Luna gestured for Ron to take a seat, which he did so after gesturing to Tom for two hot chocolates.

'Home is the same as always. How is your boyfriend?' Ron noticed that Luna's mobile was once again on the table in front of her.

'He's doing well. He's a muggle actor and is busy attending auditions so he won't be back for another five days.' Luna spoke in her usual dreamy way, but again Ron noticed that underlying hint of stress. He quietly sipped at his hot chocolate, giving Luna time to either choose to talk to him or to change the subject.

'So what did you want to do today?' Luna asked.

'Well I was hoping to have a look around in Quality Quidditch Supplies.' Ron said, waiting for Luna to grimace and quickly suggest they go elsewhere. But she surprised him.

'Oh, me too! I was hoping to find a model broom to take home.'

'Why just a model?'

'Well, since I live in the muggle world, I can hardly go flying around on a full sized broom, can I? So I thought I would do the next best thing and have a model one.'

'Oh. That makes sense.' Ron nodded. Just as he reached to finish his hot chocolate he felt the top of the table shake. Luna quickly snatched at her mobile.

'What was that?'

'Oh, just a message from my boyfriend,' Luna was frowning, her pale eyebrows knitted together. Ron again wondered if Luna was happy with her boyfriend. He finished his drink and waited patiently for Luna to finish tapping at the mobile.

'Everything ok?' he asked when she looked up.

'Yes, everything is fine.' Luna nodded in a distracted kind of way.

'Are you ready to go look for your model broom?'

'Oh, yes!' Luna took a deep breath as she put her phone in her pocket and gave Ron a huge smile before quickly finishing her drink.

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'No, it was the 1473 final, not 1573!'

'Are you sure, Ronald? I'm quite certain that it was the 1573 final.'

'Look, here's a copy of Quidditch Through The Ages. Let me find it.' Ron sighed when he realized how much like Hermione he had just sounded.

'Here it is. Yes, it was the 1473 final. I was right.' Ron announced triumphantly. If there was one thing he prided himself on, it was his knowledge of his favourite sport. And the 1473 Quidditch final was famous for having all 700 fouls featured in the game. Everyone knew about it!

Luna didn't grace him with a response, she just gave him an indulgent smile and continued to browse through the store. She had already found her model broom – luckily there had been one left of her favourite model, the Cleansweep 7 – and was slowly looking through the rest of the store as she made her way to the counter at the back of the store.

Ron continued to flick through Quidditch Through The Ages while Luna wandered around. It was the newest edition and neither he nor Hermione had gotten around to buying it lately. He decided he would buy it and ask Hermione to look through it and find all the newest additions. Maybe then they could actually manage to have a civil conversation together!

'Ron?'

Ron jumped a little and looked up; Luna was at the counter patiently waiting for him.

'Did you want to buy that?' Luna's pale eyebrows raised in question, and Ron had to pinch himself so that he would stop staring at her and actually respond.

'Yeah, I will,' he made his way over to her, realizing along the way that he still couldn't take his eyes off of Luna. He didn't know why he couldn't stop staring, and he didn't really care, either. She was pretty, why wouldn't anyone want to stare?

As the pair made their way out of the store, a light tinkling sound came from Luna's pocket.

'Was that your mobile?' Ron asked curiously.

'Yes. I figured out that it can make sounds every time I get a message.' As Luna spoke the mobile tinkled again. Ron couldn't help but notice how stressed Luna looked every time she had the mobile in her hands. He held the store door open for her and placed one hand on her lower back so that while she had her head down and was focused on writing back to her boyfriend, he could gently steer her out of harm's way if need be.

They made it back to the backdoor that lead into the Leaky Cauldron before Luna lifted her head, looking around in surprise.

'Oh, I'm sorry, Ron, I didn't realise how far we had made it! I'm being terribly rude.'

'Don't worry about it, Luna. If you need to write to your boyfriend, you can.' Ron did his best to appear nonchalant, but he was starting to wonder why muggles felt the need to be in constant, instant contact all the time if it made them stressed in the same way it stressed Luna.

Watching her now, Ron noticed that she did look rather tired.

'Luna,' Ron waited for Luna look up at him before he continued, 'Luna, you know that if you ever need anything, you can come to me, don't you?'

Luna blinked at him slowly as she listened. Solemnly she nodded.

'Of course I do, Ron. And you can feel free to come find me if you need anything.' Luna gave Ron another hug.

'I'm afraid I must go into the muggle world and make my way home now, would you walk me out of the Leaky Cauldron?' Luna asked as she broke off the hug.

'Sure I will,' Ron smiled as he reached around her to open the door to the Leaky Cauldron, which made Luna blush.

Ron caught himself staring again, but this time he found himself wanting to kiss her. He shook his head, scolding himself.

She has a boyfriend! You're just her friend!

But he couldn't help himself as she walked in front of him, her hips swaying gently. Her dress hugged her hips beautifully, fanning out to show her long legs.

There's no harm in just looking, surely?

Ron tried to beat Luna to the door again, but she was faster, giving him a vague smile as she held the door open for him this time. Ron stepped through and turned to hold the door open from the outside as Luna walked through, blushing again.

They walked together in companionable silence, Ron looking all around at the strange muggles with their odd contraptions and Luna occasionally staring her mobile. Every time Ron saw her look down at her mobile, Ron would put his hand on her lower back again, just making sure that she wouldn't bump into anything accidently.

'LUNA!' a stranger yelled out, holding a large camera up and blinding both Ron and Luna with its flash.

'Luna, are you cheating?' the same man continued to yell out as he continued to blind the pair with flash after flash, 'Who is your side man?'

'What the hell?' Ron made a motion to grab his wand, but Luna's hand gripped his wrist.

'He's a muggle, Ron!' Luna hissed, 'Come this way!' and Luna led Ron away from the muggle man.

The man kept following, still yelling out questions to Luna, asking Ron what his name was, never stopping the flashes.

Luna led Ron into a small side alley, where she turned to face the muggle. Ron noticed that she had her wand out in her hand, but hid it behind her back. As the muggle came around the corner, she pointed her wand at him.

'Obliviate.'

The muggle stopped mid step, giving Luna enough time to leap forward and take his camera out of his hands. She threw it on the ground and stomped on it as hard as she could, not stopping until it was only a twisted hunk of plastic on the ground. Then she pointed her wand at the plastic.

'Reducto. Quick Ron, let's go!' Luna grabbed Ron's hand again and led him back onto the muggle street, where they both speedily made their way to the end and around the corner.

'Oh, I've missed my train home,' Luna sighed, seeming completely unfazed by the events that had just taken place.

'Who was that man?' Ron demanded. Luna glanced at Ron and sighed deeply.

'He was a photographer. Probably sells his photos to the highest seller.'

'Sure, but why did he want your photo? He's only a muggle.'

Luna hesitated before answering.

'My boyfriend is a muggle actor. Actors in the muggle world are huge celebrities, which means all the muggles want to know where they are, who they're dating, if their partners are actually faithful,' Luna trailed off, looking tired and sad.

'It's exhausting. I can't even see my friends for coffee without those photographers interrupting.'

'So that's why you wanted to spend so much time in Diagon Alley, away from all the muggles.' Ron felt his face falling. He had just been a distraction, that's all.

'And I wanted to spend time with my friend,' Luna smiled up at Ron. 'You made me feel normal again, Ron. Normal, and happy.' Luna raised herself up onto her tip toes to kiss him on the cheek.

Ron gazed down at her with a small smile on his face. He made her happy!

'I am at your command,' Ron winked and bowed deeply, making Luna giggle.

'Thank you, Ron. Now, I really must go home before I'm missed. Can I see you again?'

'Anything for you to have a normal day every now and then. When were you thinking?'

'How about in three days?'

Ron was about to say yes, but he realized that three days would be the day before he and Hermione would talk. He didn't want to spend the day with Luna when he would be anxious about setting things right with Hermione.

'Uh, how about four days? I have a – a date – with Hermione in three days.'

'Sounds like a friend date, I'll see you in four days.' Luna smiled and spun on the spot, disapparating away.