The Houses Competition Round Eight
House: Gryffindor
Class: Herbology
Standard
Prompt: Springs
Word Count: 1,739 (wordcounter .net)
A/N: There's a steampunk convention every year right by where I live and I swear I see the coolest hairstyles there every year. So many things can go in hair. And I think Luna should be the one putting them there.
"Forgot gloves again?" Someone asks, and Ginny looks up from where she is bent over the cracked sink, rust red circling the faucet. Harry grins at her from the next sink over, and nods at her hands.
"You always had a bad habit of that." He says, and she remembers that her arms are burned.
She looks down, to where redness circles her arm from the wrist up to the elbows, a patch by her right elbow looking particularly nasty. She adjusts the water from cold to cool, and splashes some onto the area, careful not to touch it.
"No. I wore them. I was down on the red deck." She says, and Harry makes a small "ah," noise. Behind him, Lavender peeks over his shoulder.
"Gross." She says, sympathetically, Ginny thinks, and then immediately turns and leaves, presumably off to find Pansy and Parvati for lunch. Hannah takes her place, and Ginny splashes a few more handfuls of water onto her arm and transfigures a soft towel to gently pat the less burned areas. She turns it back into a bar soap and swipes a salve from the potions rack, then waves to Harry as she leaves.
They had an amicable breakup. She's glad.
Beneath her the grates of the airship rumble and tremble ever so slightly, as they do on the lower decks closer to all the machinery and magic. Further up there is barely a shiver of the engines, but Ginny prefers it down here, where the magic hums and the steam rises so violently it can shake a sail, and the gears grind so hard the metal walkways vibrate.
Then again. The upper decks do have their benefits. The largest of which is blonde and waiting for her.
She'll never get used to the elevators. They rise faster like a broom, and she gets a slight thrill from that, but they're also small and enclosed, and far bouncier than any good broom should be. She tries to distract herself from the feeling by applying the salve, its coolness seeping into her red skin and almost immediately healing it, but she still feels jumpy. She steps out still feeling claustrophobic and bouncy, her legs automatically trying to compensate for the bumpy ride after years of Quidditch building up her instincts. The solid metal of the upper decks greets her feet, and she inhales the cool, fresh air.
The smell of clouds and flowers has now joined the smell of metal. The people who walk these decks wear all sorts of things, not just the leather aprons and overalls and thick dragon scale boots of down below. Girls in silky dresses and starry capes and men in pale robes walk these decks. Uniforms dot the crowd with gold buttons and copper roses, red stripes and navy fascinators. Susan Bones rushes past, her apron stained with food instead of charcoal, and Ginny sees white blonde hair that may belong to a Malfoy disappear into another elevator.
Luckily, not one they'd have to take.
She looks up. A configuration of floating gears, springs, hands, and glass orbs floats above in mid air of the vaulted ceiling of this near-the-top deck, forming a massive time piece. She watches as crystal hands spin and springs coil, before a sharp melody chimes through the air, surprisingly soft but magically audible to everyone who would listen for it.
Two o'clock. She's right on time. But she's also still right in front of the elevators, and she will need to find a more obvious place to wait. Preferably somewhere high up.
She ends up standing on a bench by one of the tea vendors. The witch inside gives her a dirty look, but continues pouring jasmine. She has a clear view of the gate she needs to watch, and when blonde bobs into sight, five minutes late, she waves her wand.
Her horse patronus trots over the heads, attracting only a few glances before it dives down to prance around Luna, who Ginny can see start smiling from even her precarious position on the bench. Mentally noting where her rather noticeable large, glowing horse stands, she carefully hops down from the bench and starts walking towards it, knowing it will stay with Luna until she gets there.
When she reaches them, there is a rabbit perched on her horses back, apparently right in the middle of binkies.
"Ginny!" Luna chirps, like the birds that fly alongside them on low altitude days. She shoves her hand into Ginny's before Ginny can do anything, not that she would stop it. There are flowers in Luna's hair, and her long skirt blows in the wind that is ever present in the sky. Succulents are blooming at her knuckles like rings, and there is a handbasket floating behind her shoulder, covered by floral print linen.
"You're on time today." Ginny says, because five minutes is basically on time for them when both of them are usually late, and Luna giggles.
"You were early. That happy to see me?" She asks. Behind them, the patronus charms disappear.
Ginny leans in to press a quick kiss to the flyaways scattered across Luna's face. "Always." She says into pansies and poppies and blonde hair, too loud to be a whisper but too quiet to be overheard in the hustle and bustle of an airship. She can feel Luna's lips form a smile against her cheek.
Ginny pulls away first. "So. Where are you taking me today?" She asks.
Luna's smile is like something from a thousand miles above even their highest altitudes. Ginny fears they will never reach the heights her girlfriend belongs in. Heaven is just a bit too far away.
"The Phlox is nice right now. And there are violets." Luna tells her, and starts tugging Ginny towards whatever way they will have to take to get to her desired garden. "We'll sit by a fountain, and I'll do your hair."
Magic and the open sky has done strange things to gardening. Even though it's almost Christmas, the gardens Luna helps care for are still caught in spring, eternally perfect for picnic dates.
xXx
"Um, Luna?" Ginny mumbles, shifting slightly beneath girlfriend's hands as she reaches for the last fruit tart. To save it from the heat of the garden's mechanical sun, she tells herself. The tart is sweet and golden, and the pastry and white filling melt on her tongue. Luna makes the best fruit tarts.
Small partitions of Ginny's soft red hair are caught between Luna's fingers, a complicated arrangement that probably looks like it's about to become tangled, but Ginny knows Luna has enough experience to prevent that. One hand remains mostly free though, and as Ginny watches in the reflection of the mirrors around them, Luna uses it to carefully separate a chunk of hair and loop it over the thumb of her other hand to join another chunk. Then she reaches for her basket.
"Yes, love?" Luna finally croons, barely looking as her fingers fish out her desired item. She holds it up to the light, and the copper spring shines in almost the same colour as Ginny's hair.
"Isn't this a bit…. fancy?" Ginny asks tentatively. She's not unused to sitting for an hour or so after their picnics as Luna fiddles with her hair, usually trying out several styles before she settles on one. She even finds it soothing, the gentle tugging and combing as Luna sorts her usually simple ponytail hair into a wide assortment of braids and crowns and magically curled ringlets, and then weaves various things into it, be it ribbons, flowers, charms, or this time apparently, copper springs and clock hand hairsticks.
Luna leans over her shoulder and smiles into the reflection of one of the mirrors that Ginny casts so that she can watch what Luna does. She looks a little more secretive than usual, which is saying something, since Luna always looks like she knows a secret or two.
That's probably good, Ginny tells herself.
"Where we're going, you need to be a bit fancy." Luna says, and grabs several more springs from the basket before holding them out for Ginny to take and hold for her. Ginny recognises the sizes of some of them, wonders where she got them. Some of them have copper flowers fixed to the ends, clearly meant to be somehow twisted into a bun so that the flower points out. Others are simply shiny.
"Where are we going?" Ginny asks, as Luna weaves two smaller plaits into a bigger one, and starts threading springs onto twists of hair.
"Somewhere we've gone before. I've left you clothes in your room after you went to work this morning. I think you'll like them." The twists form a rose shaped bun at the back of her head, just over the scalloped plait. A hand pokes over Ginny's shoulder, making a grabby motion for what she holds. She offers her hand, and Luna picks a jasmine topped spring from the collection.
"Hint." Ginny demands, as copper flowers start surrounding the bun, and more plain springs start to spike out from its base in an artificial imitation of leaves.
"Hmmmm…. the last person you went with was similarly intrigued with flowers." Luna decides, and rises to her knees to clip one last spring in the front. "Perfect." She whispers, and kisses Ginny on the cheek.
Ginny grins, curiosity temporarily set aside, and twists around to pursue more than just a kiss on the cheek.
xXx
She'd honestly forgotten about the Yule Ball. Being in an airship slightly distorted her sense of time when they didn't experience any of the seasons like they once had down below, and while logically she'd known it was winter, it rarely affected her.
Luna was right. The suit she'd left in Ginny's room is perfect, and though it looks too big at first, once she puts it on, everything fits perfectly. Her hair looks awesome, copper and red brilliant against the soft silky material, and she doesn't often wear makeup, but she owns eyeshadow in the same copper colour, and she uses mascara and tinted chapstick and dusts her already freckled cheeks with glitter.
Luna isn't wearing springs in her hair, but she's got them on a necklace around her neck and around her wrists as bracelets so that they match, and she lets Ginny follow her lead when they dance.