part four: a bit of advice

"Why do you want to go?" Luna asked curiously as they both stare at the Lake from their seat on the bank.

Gabrielle gave a glare at the body of water that had caused her such trouble. "Mother did not know zit was a zance only for the older students and sent dress robes for me zaz well. They are quite lovely but I am still growing and if I do not wear zit I will soon be too large. It might ze silly," she turned her head to smile at Luna, "but I do no wish for it to go to waste."

"Don't you want to go?" she asks back.

"It does sound like fun," Luna admitted (it is second nature now for that memory of the night at the ballet to float across her mind, she wonders what Cordy would think of "dress robes"), "but no one has asked me either. And as you said it's for the older students."

They notice one of those "older students" walking around the edge of the lake, kicking a stone with his shoe, deep in thought and generally not paying attention to the world around him.

"'Arry!" Gabrielle yelled, waving at the boy who rescued her while he was still a ways off.

Harry comes over a bit reluctantly but is no match for Gabrielle's excitement and she soon has him sitting down with them.

"So," he says awkwardly, staring straight ahead. "What were you guys talking about?"

"Ze dance," Gabrielle sighs and Harry stiffens, both girls notice, and it is the younger who asks. "What is wrong 'Arry?"

Harry seems taken off guard by their bluntly honest interest and ends up telling them about Cho and the girls who attempt to get a date with "The Boy Who Lived."

"You could take Gabrielle," Luna suggested when he finished. At his uncertain look she smiled calmly.

"Nobody would question it, Harry," Luna assured him. "You saved her and that makes you practically family amongst the Veela. It would be sweet, like taking your little sister to a big event."

"Please 'arry," Gabrielle begged, grabbing his arm again. "You'd be my 'ero. Again," she noted with a quirk of her lips.

"I'm not a hero," Harry said awkwardly

"Why not? There's nothing wrong with heroes," Luna said with an odd fond smile of remembrance. "They're some of the best people I wish I'd known."

Harry looked simultaneously touched and deeply confused.

"Alright," he says, giving in. "I'll go with, Gabrielle."

The girl in question squealed happily and practically tackled him with her hug. By the startled then content look on his face Luna could tell he grew up an only child as well.

She sees sudden inspiration come over Harry's face.

"Hey," he asks, "do you have a date?"

***

"Ask her," Luna says sipping her punch.

"What?" her date asks, barely a grunt his eyes trained across the room.

"To dance," she answers.

"Who?" Ron doesn't uncross his arms or stop glaring at a certain couple on the dance floor as he responds

"Hermione," she says simply.

He looks over at her then then and his voice is nervous as he asks, "Why would I dance with Hermione?"

Luna stares for a moment, not even blinking. She doesn't understand how Ron cannot tell, how it is possible not to just look and see the lines of connection between Hermione and him. She agreed to go as Ron's date because Harry asked her and assured her it would just be as friends - she thinks she would like more friends.

But this...can he not perceive his own actions?

It is Fred who is sympathetic in her mind, who in seconds shows Luna her entire relationship with Wesley. How the other man loved her so desperately (almost too much at times) right from the beginning. And time and time again Fred didn't see, hurt him by trying to build a close friendship when he wanted more so badly. Fred who takes the blame for figuring it out so late (although she had no way of knowing her time was so short - but perhaps she should have, there was never any guarantees in their lives).

It is then Fred in the forefront of her conscious when she leans forward (ignoring Ron's widening eyes and suspicious expression), smiles, so very sad, and says "If you don't dance with her now someone else will. And not only tonight. Do you want to loose her?"

Luna has never had a problem with being direct and approves of the bluntness - especially when it causes Ron to stand. As he gets to the edge of the dance floor his Gryfindor courage seems to waver and he looks back at her, she nods and he swallows hard, tugging on his hand-me-down robes and marching to the where Viktor and Hermione are dancing. He pauses again right before he taps the large Quidditch player on the shoulder and she almost fears he will turn back around.

The dancing couple spot him though and Ron seems to stammer a bit but the way Hermione's face lights up shows it hardly makes a difference.

Viktor easily steps away from them but once he reaches the edge of the crowd he seems ssomewhat at a loss, his dark eyes scan the room and spot her - he doesn't exactly smile but his whole expression brightens a bit as he makes his way over to her. He slides into the just vacated seat and exactly like in the library, the silence between them is comfortable.