THC: Round 4

House: Ravenclaw

Class subject: Herbology

Story Category: Standard

Prompt(s): [Trope] Fake relationship

Word count: 2427

Notes: Modern AU/ non-magic AU.

Honey Coated Wishes

"This is ridiculous, Ginny." Hermione tutted as she watched the younger girl post an ad asking for someone to be her date for Christmas dinner.

"Listen, it's the first Christmas since Harry and I broke up and you know he's still coming because Mom loves him. I need to show him that I'm fine and living it up."

"And you're going to do that by bringing a stranger?" Hermione may have been an only child but, boy, was she great at pretending to be Ginny's older sister.

"Harry knows all of my friends!" Ginny cried. "It's not like I can just bring Neville- he'll know it's fake."

"Maybe, and hear me out, Gin, you don't need to bring anyone at all."

If Ginny had to hear the "it's okay to be single" talk from Hermione again she really would cry. Of course she knew it was okay to be single but that wasn't the point of all this. She had to show Harry that she didn't need him. And yes, her master plan was just to bring some fun stranger to Christmas with her.

"I know I don't need to, Mione, but I want to."

"Didn't your parents ever teach you about Stranger Danger?" Only Hermione would lecture her about the dangers of people off the internet when half their friends met their significant others off Tinder.

"No," Ginny shrugged with a grin on her face. "Most of the time I was in more danger being at home with the twins."

"If you're that insistent on not listening to me then could you at least find a stranger we know?"

"How are they a stranger if we know them?"

"One of our friends must know someone who'd be willing to date you for a night."

"Oh!" The exclamation caused Hermione to jump next to her. "Neville was talking about introducing me to that one girl."

"Okay, maybe not that," Hermione frowned. "You wouldn't want to lead her on if she really does want to date you."

Ginny cocked her head to the side. "I think it was just for us to be friends."

"Oh, the way you phrased it made it seem like he was setting you up on a date."

"I don't think so…" Ginny trailed off trying to remember the conversation she had with Neville about it. "I could ask him?"

"Sounds better than you bringing..." Hermione leaned over to look at one of the offers on the computer. An obvious frat boy who was for some reason holding a fish in his photo starred at them. "Chad with you. Seriously if you bring this dude I'm telling your mother."

"Trust me, you do not need to worry about that," Ginny closed the laptop. "I'd rather show up alone than with someone named Chad."

Ginny wasn't dumb by any means and had been planning this fake relationship idea for months. There was still enough time before Christmas that she could make this seem like a natural thing and not an "I brought someone purely to make Harry jealous" thing.

And yes, maybe it had started off as a "make Harry jealous" plan, but it evolved into being something so much more. It was to prove to herself that she didn't need Harry. A lot of her childhood was spent looking up to him, and her young adult years were spent being in love with him. Now, as an adult fresh out of her graduate degree and only having one real relationship to her name, Ginny needed something to assure herself she was worthy of love.

So what if that meant asking a stranger to pretend to be in love with her on Christmas so she didn't have to spend it alone for the first time in years? Maybe she'd even make a friend out of this whole ordeal. Neville mentioned that they would get along ages ago. Ginny just never had the time to meet up in between finishing her thesis and putting her heart back together.

Graduation had been two months ago, and December alone was still five-ish months away. The perfect amount of time to craft this relationship. Ginny had the entire narrative written out and she just had to get this Luna girl to agree to it.

The past couple of months had been a breath of fresh air. Getting to know Luna opened a lot of new things for Ginny. The blonde showed her a whole different side to the world that she had been living in. Hermione even commented on how much happier she looked. Maybe, just maybe, it was because Ginny wasn't trying to hide everything anymore.

The only people who knew the truth were Hermione, Neville, Luna, and herself. Everyone else just assumed she and Luna had this whirlwind summer romance and were now exclusively dating. They weren't totally wrong. Their friendship had been fast and made Ginny's head spin sometimes. Luna had become an important part of her life in the blink of an eye, but at the end of the day, Ginny was still the same Ginny who watched Harry turn his back on her.

"Are you sure this looks okay?" Ginny stared at herself in the mirror, smoothing her hands over the dress. They were out shopping trying to find clothes suitable for Christmas dinner. It was also just another excuse to hang out. Even though none of her family were around to see them, Ginny liked moments like this when she could lean on Luna as if they were something more than friends.

"I think you look great in anything." Luna smiled at her from where she was seated in the corner of the dressing room. Her tone draped over Ginny like honey, sugary and smooth. The thing Ginny liked the most about Luna was her honesty. There was no need to question if the statement was a lie just to make her feel better.

Ginny laughed, probably a little too loud, and it rang through the dressing room, bouncing off the walls. "Thanks, but my mother will have a fit if I show up in anything that she doesn't deem 'nice enough" which is so vague! It always makes me second guess my choices."

Growing up with only brothers made Ginny out to be some sort of doll for her mother to play dress-up with. It never really mattered what her brothers wore to dinner, what they studied in school, or how they acted. None of them were reminded to "act like a lady" or that they needed to be a "quality wife". She knew it was the reason that she clung to Harry for so long. Her mother adored him, and so Ginny never had to second guess if he was the "right" choice. Being with Harry had been easy and maybe that's why it had been so hard for her once it was gone.

"We can always come back later if you want to think about it." Luna walked up behind her to unzip the dress. "How about we go check out that new restaurant that opened last week? A full stomach might make things easier for you."

A full stomach did not help Ginny because she was too busy trying to ignore the butterflies that were there.

"This is my girlfriend, Luna," Ginny announced to her family when they stepped inside her house for Christmas dinner. "Luna, this is my family. That's Bill and his wife Fleur, Charlie, Percy, the twins Fred and George, and Ron. Mom's probably in the kitchen and I actually don't know where Dad is. You already know Hermione; she's also dating Ron which I've never understood. Angelica is Fred's fiancée and Oliver is..."

Ginny actually didn't know why Oliver was sitting next to Percy on the couch. Last she knew they hated each other but were also best friends? Keeping up with them gave her more of a headache than trying to figure out the twins' next prank. She knew that Percy liked men- that wasn't a secret. Percy never really cared about any of that when it came to the people he dated. It's why she sought him out a couple of years ago before she started dating Harry. Asking Percy if it really was okay for her to like girls.

"Oliver is my boyfriend," Percy added in and Ginny couldn't help but let out a laugh.

"Since when?" Ginny moved to take Luna's coat from her and hang it up in the hallway. "You tried to get him arrested last year."

"I did not—"

"It's okay," Oliver laughed a knowing twinkle in his eyes. "I probably deserved it."

"Well, that's not how it happened anyway." Percy huffed, narrowing his eyes at his little sister before turning and smiling at Luna. "It's nice to meet you, Luna."

Ginny glanced around the room and didn't notice Harry anywhere. She honestly didn't know how she felt about it.

"It's nice to meet you too. All of you. Ginny talks about you a lot." Luna's voice was alight with this tone of mischief that made Ginny's stomach churn.

"I wouldn't say a lot…" It was a complete lie. Ginny did talk about her family a lot. It was hard not to when there were so many of them.

"It's okay Gin, we know you love us," Fred teased from his spot in the living room. At least that would never change. "Oh, and Dad's out back with Harry."

Ginny knew everyone in the room had turned to look at her. She could feel all of their eyes boring into her with the mention of Harry's name. Luna knew everything there was to know about her relationship with Harry. In fact, Luna knew the entire plan. Ginny didn't think it was right to keep it from her. But when Luna slipped her hand into Ginny's she couldn't help but feel a little shocked.

The questioning look on her mother's face didn't go unnoticed as Ginny introduced Luna, but she decided to ignore it. When Harry and her father walked in that was when Ginny started to feel truly nervous.

"I didn't know you liked girls," was the first thing out of Harry's mouth and Ginny felt everything crash around her. She heard Hermione begin to yell at Harry for, well, being Harry before walking out of the living room.

She sat down on her childhood bed and stared at the wall for far too long. A couple of months before they broke up Ginny admitted to Harry that she wasn't straight. She had done it late at night after they were both in bed and let the darkness envelop her as she said it. Harry had muttered to her that it was okay and that he still loved her but now she thinks that he hadn't even listened to her in the first place.

The door opened and Luna walked in and sat herself down next to Ginny. "Your brothers are out there trying to fight him."

Her tears mixed with a laugh that bubbled out of her "Of course they are."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Luna reached over to wipe some of the tears away and Ginny wished it was real.

"No," Ginny needed to pull herself together before dinner. "I'll tell you later though."

"You know," Luna held her face so Ginny was forced to look at her. "You're much too good for him, and I mean that."

Another laugh spilled out of Ginny's mouth as she pressed her eyes closed leaning into Luna's touch. "You're too good for me."

"Now where did you get that idea?"

"I've known since you agreed to do all this," Ginny whispers it like it's a secret. "Because you didn't ask for anything in return."

"I did get something in return," Luna's voice is soft. "I got you."

They sat there for a moment before there was a knock at the door. Ginny to jumped out of Luna's hold as Hermione's voice drifted through the door, "Dinner's almost done."

"Thanks, Mione," Ginny's voice was shaky. "We'll be out in a minute."

Wordlessly they stood and walked out of Ginny's old room. Harry at least had the decency to look ashamed when he made eye contact with her.

"So, when did you two start dating?" She knew Oliver's just trying to be nice but she wished he hadn't bothered to make conversation.

"Over the summer," Luna interjected. "Neville introduced us and everything just seemed to fall into place."

"That's cute," Angelica added. "Fred and I were introduced to each other through a mutual friend."

"Yeah. Oliver." Fred laughed. "You make it seem like he isn't sitting right next to you."

"Where'd you go on your first date?" Fleur asked before Fred and Angelica could start arguing.

"We went to a café near where she lives," Ginny supplied.

"Have you kissed yet?" George wiggled his eyebrows at them.

"Oh don't be silly, George." Angelica shot him a look. "Of course they have."

They actually hadn't, seeing as their relationship was fake, but the whole point was that no one sitting at the table (besides Hermione) knew that.

"She kissed me after our third date."

Their third "date" had consisted of them having a picnic in the park. Ginny had uploaded some photos of it to her social media not really stating what Luna was to her but making her presence known. The truth was, Ginny wanted to kiss her that night but decided against it. Hearing Luna choose that specific time made Ginny's heart clench and she had to keep telling herself in her head it was all fake.

After that, her mother had shifted the conversation asking Bill and Fleur about how the pregnancy was going. Ginny's mind was still racing from everything that had happened. Had Luna wanted Ginny to kiss her that night as well? Did she know that Ginny had wanted to but stopped herself? Did she not remember at all and just made something up that would sound plausible? Ginny had no idea.

"Would you hate me if I said I didn't want this to be fake anymore?" Ginny asked a few days before New Year's Eve.

"Darling, it was never fake, to begin with." Luna leaned over to brush the hair out of Ginny's face. "You just needed some time to realize it."

So Ginny kissed her not fake girlfriend. "I have so much time to make up for."

"I'll be right here." Luna kissed her again. "There's no need to rush."