'They say that it is better to be poor and happy, rather than rich and miserable, but how about a compromise like moderately rich and just moody?' - Princess Diana
After dancing for a good half hour, Hermione felt it most appropriate to quit while she was ahead. Excusing herself from the Sky Guardian, she went to the dimly lit corner under the Royal Quad Balcony and breathed in deeply, inhaling the light scent of thyme.
The chandelier cast a classy glow on the rest of the attendees and Hermione, being more the observer than the partier, enjoyed the scene immensely. Fanning herself lightly, she noticed a pair of cornflower blue eyes on her, staring at her with uncanny steadiness.
Feeling apprehensive and a little bit miffed, Hermione turned to hold the man's eyes herself, with the idea of glaring him into submission and demanding retribution.
Instead, all she turned to see was empty space.
Frowning, Hermione made to go back onto the dance floor, resigning herself to having her feet stepped on.
And then there was a bright flash of golden feathers, the air in front of her shimmering with an ebullient glow. Descending from the balcony was a teenage boy with messy hair and bright green eyes, a friendly smile on his face.
"Hello. I noticed you were standing here by yourself, so I thought I'd keep you company." said the boy, still smiling at her.
Hermione had never seen anyone quite like him. He glowed—there was no better way to describe it. Some inner light seemed to shine from his skin, pouring out and putting people at ease. His eyes held an innocence and yet profound wisdom, his face young yet timeless. His wings shimmered and looked as if they were made of the purest gold, molten and lustrous. They were still and ethereal, framing his lean figure and making him seem even younger than he ostensibly was.
Hermione felt her breath catch in her throat. The boy—although that was hardly an appropriate word for him—seemed to gain a sheepish look.
"Did I startle you? I've been trying to cut down on the number of heart attacks I cause. I see I'm failing miserably."
"No," Hermione said, regaining her voice. "You simply…overwhelmed me. And yes, the company would be nice."
He smiled at her. "I'd ask you to dance, but I'm even worse than your last partner."
Hermione felt she had to defend Viktor, who was really not at fault for not knowing the Golden Dance—he was of Heaven's Gate, he could hardly be expected to dance as she did.
"Viktor is a brilliant dancer." she said indignantly. "He's merely less adept at Human dancing. It is through no fault of his own."
"I assure you, I meant no offence. I just meant I'd step on your toes far more often than he did, with or without the same excuse." he said. Hermione had yet to decide what to make of him. He seemed nice enough, but there was just something about him that screamed ulterior motive.
"And who might you be?" she said in her best upper class tone.
Looking amused, the boy answered, "I'm Harry. And you are?"
"Lady Hermione Granger of Rook Manor."
"A pleasure I'm sure. And how long have you known Viktor?"
"You know Viktor?" asked Hermione suspiciously.
"I've known him long enough." said Harry simply. Hermione waited for him to elaborate further, but he did not. It was one of the most infuriating things Hermione had ever come across. She just couldn't seem to be able to get a good grasp of his character.
"I met him a couple of days ago, if you must know. I promised him my first dance." As soon as the words left Hermione's mouth, she knew she'd done it again; she'd given more information than required without any promise of receiving the same from him in return. It was her inability not to answer questions to the best of her ability that made her a terrible politicker.
Yet, she didn't feel as though the boy-man in front of her would make her regret her tongue. She didn't understand why, but she knew that whoever this Harry was (he hadn't even given a title when introducing himself, so he could literally be anyone), he wasn't bad, or anything remotely related to the more negative aspects of life. He, as mentioned before, glowed.
"I hope you had fun. Speaking frankly, Viktor's a really nice person and you seem to be too. He can come off as a bit unkind sometimes, and it's gotten him a lot of flak. I just wanted to ascertain that you weren't going to do anything hurtful to him, but I can see I needn't have worried." Harry said, smiling at her. Hermione felt that smile was worth the entire confusion he caused her.
Harry, meanwhile, inwardly grinned. Viktor was a great person, true, but Hermione was clearly not 'the one' for him. No, this girl was privileged enough to be blessed with both brains and a heart, and Viktor, bless the poor man, just wouldn't be able to handle everything that came with being her intended.
Ron definitely had his work cut out for him.
Prince Frederick, but he preferred to be called Fred (less pretentious that way), exchanged a look with his twin brother. Prince George then turned to watch their youngest brother stare longingly at the girl the King of the Sky was conversing with.
They smiled at each other deviously.
Let the games begin.
Luna had a nice pleasant conversation with her newly discovered fairy godmother, and she had to say that her mother had outdone herself when picking her. Ginny was of the opinion that she'd never met anyone quite as odd as her contractor. But in the end, what mattered was that Lady Luna looked hardly the type to stop her from doing whatever she pleased (she looked like she might encourage it actually). An excerpt of their conversation went thusly:
"And so the rainbows actually do have a steady supply of M&M's, but they only steal the pink ones because they don't have that colour themselves." finished Luna.
"And so the aphrodisiac you fed the rabbit made it steal pink M&M's for the rainbow." Ginny summarised.
"Yes."
"But why aphrodisiac? Surely that would have resulted in a nest of baby bunnies, not a rash of M&M stealing."
"Oh Ginny," Luna shook her head despondently. "the baby bunnies ate the other colours, and then they turned to stardust. Everyone knows that."
So of course, the amount of sense that made pleased everyone. Obviously.
The carriage came to an abrupt halt, and as Ginny peered through the window, she saw one of the most beautiful sights in the Golden Kingdom.
The Weasley Palace proudly stood on a shallow hill, with over a thousand candles and reams of fairy lights lighting up the exterior (the candles were magically enchanted to not blow out). The architecture could be considered haphazard and structurally unstable, but that was what made the Palace so special. The two girls took in the bronze statues in the luscious gardens, the perennial flowers wafting their perfume from the nearly-but-not-quite-overgrown flowerbeds, the earthy stone walls, the breath-taking towers and the glittering purple strip of carpet leading up to the entrance. Sounds of music, laughter and chatter could be heard even from this distance.
Ginny became unaccountably nervous, but Lady Luna simply breezed past, confident that she was going to have a brilliant time.
Almost flouncing all the way up the many, many, many stairs leading to the ballroom, Luna barely needed to think about her gowns' many layers to prevent tripping over the fabrics—she was startlingly coordinated for someone of her disposition. Ginny, emboldened, fluttered her wings and followed a few paces behind.
Ginny had been envisioning their entrance for a long while, but what she didn't expect was for the music to stop, the entire congregation to halt their meanderings and the nobility to stop dancing mid-twirl.
Luna however, clearly noticed something she did not. She silently pointed to a mass of—what she'd initially presumed—livery and coats.
As luck would have it, when she had opened the grand doors, an aristocrat had been leaning against it and had collapsed below her feet. As she had been floating, she hadn't even noticed.
Instead of apologising, she started laughing, a touch hysterically.
The scorned noble threw her a dirty glare before blushing a bright red (even his ears!) and bent down to pick up—
Oh no, thought Ginny. That's a Prince's crown. What…have I done?
Abruptly cutting off her manic laughter, Ginny tried to help the Prince—PRINCE—up, but he just brushed her hand away ungratefully.
"Go back to what you were doing, if you please! Nothing to see here." he said in an imperious voice loudly. The festivities slowly picked up before going back to full swing when they realised no other monarchical faux pas' were to occur.
"I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to, honestly." said Ginny sincerely, almost desperately. But inwardly, she was seething. This was a rather rude monarch.
"Go annoy someone else." The red-haired man muttered angrily.
Luna decided to speak up. "That's not very nice. You should be kinder to your subjects, especially when they're not."
It seemed that the Prince had finally graced Luna with his attention after that confounding statement, for when he took in her attire, he simply gaped, mouth hanging open.
"Careful, or you may catch flies Your Highness." said a snooty voice. Ginny turned her head to the Heavenly male and Human female making their way to them.
The snooty voice belonged to the sensible looking woman, her brown hair looking painstakingly done-up and her gown uninspired. Ginny did not have the best first impression of her.
But it was the Heavenly beside her that truly caught her attention. His…his wings, and his eyes, and his—
Ginny suddenly seemed unable to function normally.
The Prince blushed a brighter shade of red. The Heavenly laughed cheerfully, and Ginny could have cried with how perfectly delighted it sounded.
"Ron, no offense, but you look like a lobster."
Ginny came back to herself as both Luna and Miss Snooty exclaimed with completely different tones, "You're Prince Ronald?"
Luna sounded curious and slightly mysterious, whereas Miss Snooty looked gobsmacked, and as though she regretted her brash words.
He must have mumbled something, for the Heavenly laughed once more, albeit with less intensity and more mischievousness.
"I would quite like to marry you." said Luna in a thoughtful voice, as though contemplating the meaning of life.
Prince Ron gaped like a guppy at Luna, and the rest of their little circle had varying degrees of shock and horror on their faces, Ginny included.
"Why would you—" began Miss Snooty, before she stopped.
Taking in the four layers of different shades of red fabrics draped artistically over a simple pastel orange gown (with a yellow waist and sleeves), the almost-white blonde hair and the permanently surprised expression, she exclaimed, horrified: "Luna?!"
"You two know each other?" asked the Heavenly politely.
"Yes, she's my stepsister." she said, as though regaining her composure.
"That is…quite interesting. And may I know your name, my lady?" he asked.
"If I may know yours." stated Luna.
"Harry, just Harry."
Ginny burst. "Harry, as in the Harry? Sovereign of the Sky, the Chosen One, the Most Benevolent King of Heaven's Gate? That Harry?"
Harry looked uncomfortable, but nodded nonetheless.
Ginny said, without thinking, "You make Bellatrix go mental. How can I ever repay you?"
Letting out a laugh, Harry seemed to relax and, realising what she'd said, Ginny tried to take it back with an unconvincing, "I was—merely jesting! I meant, that it is an honour to meet one of the Great Four."
"The honour is mine." he said, smiling at her with amusement and a hint of appreciative interest. "And may I know your name?"
"Ginny, my name is Ginny. Well, it's actually Ginevra, but no one calls me that, so just Ginny." babbled Ginny, that smile making her insides melt and turning her brain to mush.
"And I'm Lady Luna of Rook Manor. But yes, I quite agree."
No one quite understood what Luna was agreeing to, but no one thought it wise to question it.
"And you are?" asked Ron, very hesitantly and with quite a bit of forcefulness, as though he had been debating asking this question for a long time and had only just found the courage to ask it.
"Lady Hermione Granger, Your Grace." she pronounced, trying and failing to sound pure-bred.
As it was, she was dealing with the shock of realising that she'd been casually conversing with the King of Heaven's Gate, and now that she'd borderline insulted one of the Golden Kingdom's Princes, well. She wasn't in possession of all her faculties, otherwise she would already have voiced her befuddlement at Luna's possession of a—friend, for a lack of a better term.
Although, to be fair, the girl—Ginny—was about as politically savvy as a polar bear at a penguin party; quite a few parallels could be drawn between her stepsister and this red-haired fairy.
"Hermione…Hermione…that's nice." Ron mumbled, as though there was nothing in the world he had needed more than her name. Ginny found it quite embarrassing, and she'd only just met the man.
"You have my sympathies." she told King Harry. At his confusion, she elaborated. "For dealing with him. Though I suppose if you're doing it willingly, there must be something terribly wrong with you, and you have double my condolences."
Ron had turned a darker shade of red, but this time in anger, whereas Hermione had an angrily horrified look on her face.
Ginny rather thought she'd outdone herself. She had broken more rules of etiquette with that one sentence than she had her whole life.
But what made it all worth it was his reply. "And you have mine."
A quirk of his lips and a glance at Luna told her exactly what he meant by that, but instead of feeling offended on Luna's behalf, she just felt like laughing. It was odd, but she knew he didn't mean it rudely, just as she hadn't.
It was quite bizarre, this immediate understanding between them.
Luna decided to voice her impression of the King of the Sky. "You're quite handsome for someone infested so thoroughly with jimdongfers."
"Thank you Lady Luna. I'm sure that will be the most honest compliment I shall receive this entire ball." he said gravely, with a sparkle in his eyes.
For the first time in a long time, it felt, Luna genuinely smiled. "I hope you don't die Harry Potter. It would be a true shame."
And with that pronouncement, she left the Prince of the Golden Kingdom, the King of the Sky, her Fairy Thrall and her stepsister to make of it what they will, while she enjoyed the night, dancing to the rhythm of a song only she could hear.
Soon thereafter, Hermione was once again swept away by Viktor, prompting Ron's face to turn sour. Harry simply sighed, wondering how two people as awkward as these two could ever manage to fall in love.
As it was, the girl (Lady Luna, he reminded himself) and her proclamation had shaken him. It almost sounded as though she knew of the coming events. But how could she? She was just...just a noble surely! how could she possibly know?
But then, Harry reminded himself, stranger events had occurred. Indeed, their world was built on the foundations of the very same anomalies. Silent in his musings, he missed the beginning of whatever the two red-haired individuals were bickering about.
"Your manners are lacking, Your High-and-Mightyness!" she growled angrily, and if he did say so himself, that spark of anger in her eyes intrigued him despite himself.
"And your manners are non-existent Fairy!" Ron almost-yelled. Harry supposed it was time to intervene, preferably before a political scandal was sparked.
"Perhaps we should move out of the way? We are blocking the entrance, and it is awfully rude." he said, moving towards where he'd begun conversing with Lady Hermione.
And what a girl she was; utterly brash, and he supposed that she must have the same verbal disease as Ron did: neither one of them could stop themselves from making utter fools of themselves when in each others' presence.
Lady Luna was strange enough not to contemplate anymore. But this one, Ginny...how did she know Queen Bellatrix? Well enough to call her by her first name, with no title, reflexively?
There was clearly no love lost between them if her words were to be taken at face value. Which, Harry didn't quite understand it but instinct was something he never questioned, he knew he could. There was something very transparent about her, almost naive, and he wondered how she managed to keep that and still look worldly.
It was...very intriguing.
"If you both could possibly cool down, we can discuss this like adults. There is no need for childish bickering." he said, with a warning glance shot at Ron, trying to convey that his mother was watching, and not only that, but that he was a Prince. Princes did not go around yelling at lower members of the landed gentry, no matter how beautiful they looked riled up.
...what?
Taking a calming breath, Ron stiffly apologised. Ginny simply looked at Harry with a strange look in her eyes, and then snapped herself out of whatever trance she'd been in. She bowed to both of them deeply, and then stuck her tongue out at Ron almost imperceptibly.
Harry felt like laughing again, and it was so odd that she made him laugh, when he rarely ever did. He felt, to put it mildly, enchanted.
And not in the good way either.
Luna waved her hands above herself and swayed lightly to a long-forgotten tune. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the jimdongfers floating away from Harry Potter, and she felt quite pleased.
Ginny was truly her mother's most inspired choice for fairy godmother. Her very presence made the sadness-sucking monsters flee.
All was, she thought quite contently, going according to plan.
Merry Boxing Day?