Chapter 17: Fallout
Luna and Harry made their way back to Hogwarts while maintaining tightly clasped hands, neither of them wanting to let go of the other after the ordeal they'd been through. At the moment it was like that refreshing feeling after a storm, a breath of new life being breathed back into their relationship that both were fearful might not survive. It wasn't surprising at all for them to want to hold on to that feeling, to use it as the start of building a stronger foundation for things to come. As they began to walk through the halls of Hogwarts they noticed that the halls were strangely quiet, and that was when the noise from the Great Hall started to make itself heard. The quiet clamor of students talking and eating told them that while they had been out with the Thestrals lunch had started without them. Both Harry's and Luna's stomachs rumbled as began to smell the scents drifting towards them, and Luna let out a giggle. "Guess I'm not the only one who was too distraught to find anything to eat. Come on, let's go grab a bite." she said, leading the way into the hall.
Harry really should have been able to predict what would happen when he entered the Great Hall sporting a bloody lip and a shiny, swollen red handprint on his cheek; but, alas almost all the heads in the Great Hall turning towards him took him by surprise. They took in his appearance and that they were holding hands again, and there was a moment of silence before conversation burst forth with renewed vigor. Clearly the Hogwarts rumor mill had already been spreading word of what happened with him and Ginny so were rather surprised to see him and Luna paired together. Eventually the decision came of where to sit and Luna reluctantly let go of his hand before kissing his uninjured cheek. "Go ahead, we can hang out later if you want. I'm sure your friends will want to talk to you." she told him, before skipping over to an empty seat at the Ravenclaw table and smiling as she loaded up a plate of food that she immediately began to dig into.
The trip to the Gryffindor table wasn't near as pleasant for Harry, and he found himself annoyed that once again he was the center of attention for things outside of his control. If somebody else got slapped it might be the subject of conversation for an hour or two, but when it was him the entire school had to make a big deal about it and it would probably take most of a week before it began to die down. Perhaps a tad exaggerated, but then again perhaps not. Looking for his friends Harry spotted Hermione and Ginny sitting across from each other. To his utter confusion Ron was sitting next to Lavender Brown, who was half-draped over him and kept interrupting Ron's gorging of himself to kiss him. He'd had no idea she even liked him, or that Ron had ever even thought about her as anything other than a reasonably attractive girl. As he passed where they were sitting he heard her call Ro"n by the pet name 'Won-Won', and it was disturbing enough to send a chill down his spine before he found an empty spot that Hermione had been saving beside her in hopes he would show up. "Thanks Hermione, I'm starving." he told her, and began filling his plate until it was about to topple over before taking a long drink from a goblet of orange juice that appeared and began to set to.
Harry had barely gotten started when Ginny spoke up, looking over at Harry with an ashamed, guilty expression on her face. "Harry, can we talk for a minute?" she asked, and he reluctantly finished chewing and swallowed his mouthful before giving her a nod to go ahead. "Look, I understand that what I did yesterday was wrong and I want to say I'm sorry. I got into it with Lavender about something and Dean overheard what was being said and broke up with me, but I never really had time to cool off. We had the match, and after that I was just so grateful you showed up when I needed someone to talk to that I let my crush on you get the better of me. It wasn't planned or anything, and...and I know that doesn't make that much of a difference but I really am sorry if it made things difficult for you. Are, are you okay?" she asked him, her eyes darting to the bright red mark on his cheek and the bloody lip as she took in his appearance. He looked tired, but much happier than she would have thought. Perhaps Luna and him holding hands on their way in meant they'd managed to work things out somehow.
Listening to what Ginny had to say gradually started to make Harry angry. If it was only what she'd done to him he could have gotten over it, but she had done this to her oldest childhood friend and didn't even say anything about apologizing to her at all. It was unbelievable! "Okay Ginny, I'm going to be blunt. Work things out with Luna if you can, I'm not the only one that your actions had an impact on. I thought she was one of your closest friends, and you stabbed her in the back because you were upset. You're right that it doesn't matter if you planned it or not, because actions speak louder than words and yours were selfish." Harry told her, pausing to let that sink in before continuing. "Until you sort it out with her I don't want to talk to you at all except for during Quidditch practice. Do you understand?" Harry asked her, studying her expression as he saw tears beginning to well up in her eyes and start to spill over.
"I-I understand, Harry. Enjoy your lunch." she told him, grabbing her bag and darting out of the Great Hall at a good clip in hopes people wouldn't notice her crying. A few people did, but they had the good sense not to comment on it and focused on their meal. A flash of red hair disappeared past the doors, and then she was out.
Meanwhile, Harry let out a heavy sigh and went back to his meal. Almost right on cue he felt Hermione's gaze boring into him and he once again stopped eating to look at his best friend. Ron may have been his best mate, but whenever he'd really needed someone to talk to Hermione was the person of choice. It was obvious by the look in her eyes she was angry with him for his treatment of Ginny just now. "Harry, what on earth was that? Ginny had a horrible day and she made a mistake. Instead of treating her with kindness like you almost always do with people you choose to rake her over the coals. I understand that your relationship with Luna is important to you but did you really have to go and bully her like that?" she asked him, her voice filled with anger as she attempted to defend her friend. Usually she didn't have to tell Harry to be careful of other people's feelings and she was rather disappointed in him that she had been forced to now.
Harry's eyes turned ice cold as he regarded Hermione, the emerald green color resembling the a hardened gem more as they turned more calculating than she was used to seeing from him. "Hermione, how long have we been best friends?" he asked her, the question stopping her dead in her tracks as she looked at him in confusion. Clearly that had not been what she'd been expecting to hear.
Hermione took a moment to think before answering. "Nearly five years now, Harry. We became best friends after that night with the troll on Halloween when you and Ron came to save me. What's that have to do with how you treated Ginny, though?" she asked him, her arms crossing as she waited for him to explain himself. Usually Hermione was good at figuring things out, but she had absolutely no idea where Harry was going with this conversation.
Nodding at her answer, he gave her a brief smile. "Yeah, that was a crazy night. Five years you've known me better than anyone here Hermione. Now, during that time what did I always do when I saw someone being bullied?" he asked her, his eyes pinning her down as he began to slowly come to the point. "Go on, take your time and think about if you need to. I'll wait." he told her, seeing the beginning hooks of his conversation begin to dig in. Harry needed to drive a point home to Hermione, mainly that point being that he wasn't going to put up with her overbearing attitude in trying to control his behavior. She didn't always know what the best course of action was, and in this particular instance her accusing him of bullying Ginny was absolutely ridiculous. Keeping their distance from each other as much as they could was the kindest thing he could do for her right now.
"Well, usually with Malfoy the two of you would trade insults. With people in the DA you would simply help whoever needed it the most. The whole reason you started the DA in the first place was to navigate around the bully that was Dolores Umbridge. As far as I know you always try to put a stop to any sort of bullying whenever you see it. Well, with the exceptions of when the fake Mad-Eye Moody turned Malfoy into a ferret and I punched him during third year. But I can't really blame you on that account." Hermione told him with a bit of a chuckle. "From what I've noticed, you take the bullying of other people quite personally. If I were to hazard a guess I would say it's because you used to be bullied as well." she told him, making Harry sigh before giving a nod to confirm her guess.
"Right on all counts, no surprises there." Harry told her, before leaning in closer to her. "Now, before you talk again please hear me out. There are a lot of reasons why I don't want to speak to Ginny right now. The first one is that she took it upon herself to jeopardize my first real relationship for no other than reason than her being upset and me being there trying to offer a bit of friendly support. Luna understands what I've gone through and had to deal with even better than you do, Hermione. It's amazing the way she sees the world and always tries to treat people with kindness, and because Ginny didn't stop for one moment to think about what she was doing she put everything we've worked hard to build in danger." he said, his hands balling into fists as he continued and attempted to keep it together. The second reason I'll give you is that she and Luna have been close friends for years before they even came to Hogwarts! As far as I know I'm the first person Luna has ever decided to date and she tries to steal one of her closest friend's boyfriends? I'm sorry, but that is not in any way, shape, or form remotely acceptable and she needs to speak with her directly before I start speaking to her. Luna would have every reason to suspect her of making a move on me again and I do not want to put her through that when it can be avoided. Here's another reason if you still need one...Ginny needs to realize that her actions can cause permanent damage. If I were to let this blow over and treat her the same as I always have then maybe she would start to think that what she did wasn't a big deal and she could try it again either on me or somebody else. She needs to learn from this, and if it means I have to be hard on her I'll do what I have to do to drive that point home. I'm sure I could come up with more, but those are the main reasons why I treated her. Creating some distance should give her some time to think, and more importantly will keep me from lashing out at her in ways that will only make things worse for both of us. It protects all of us, at least that's my hope." Harry finished explaining. He was pleased to see that by the time he was finished Hermione had her mouth hanging open in shock. His best friend had never seen him dissect a situation like that with such precision and she was more than a little impressed.
"I'm sorry, Harry. I had no idea you'd put that much thought into handling Ginny. I suppose I should have more faith in you, it's just...well, I'm used to you diving into situations headfirst without thinking things through. Up until recently, that's been your modus operandi. But, I suppose you've changed a lot since the battle at the Ministry and I just didn't notice. Perhaps we can spend some more time together soon and I can work on fixing that." Hermione told him with a sad smile. Luna had probably had an influence on him, but she also suspected that a lot of the reason for the changes probably had a lot to do with Sirius' death as well.
Harry let out a bitter laugh when she mentioned him changing after the battle at the Ministry. "Funny how accidentally sending your godfather to his death can do that to a person. I know it was his choice to come and help us, but it doesn't change the fact that if not for me he wouldn't have needed to. Going forwards after something like that, well I want to do a better job of planning. I'm going to have to, or I'm not going to survive this war." he told her. It might seem like a bit of a bleak outlook, but honestly he thought he was being pretty realistic.
Hermione took that in for a few moments as she stared off into the distance before looking back at Harry. "You're growing up so fast, I mean we all are but you more than any of us. I guess pressure does that to a person, it either makes or breaks them." she said, shaking her head before standing up. "I'll let you get back to your meal, you really do look like you need it right now. If you need me I'll either be in the common room or in the library. Oh, and before I go...Ron and Lavender are an item now. She started snogging him after the Quidditch match and that git made a big show of it. Makes me sick, so I'll probably be avoiding him as much as humanly possible." she told him before heading off towards Gryffindor tower.
A quick glance over at Ron and Lavender showed her to be sitting with her legs in his lap as she sat sideways on the table, feeding him his food in a rather disturbing display of teenage stupidity. Harry would probably follow Hermione's lead on avoiding the pair of them, although he hoped he could at least talk to Ron a little without her. For one thing he needed to help Ron get his head out of his arse and tell Hermione how he felt, but he also needed to clear the air with him about what had happened with Ginny and why he would be shunning her until she'd done as he asked and sorted things out with Luna. Even after she'd done that he wasn't sure what kind of friendship they could try to make work, but he would at least be open to the possibility at that point.
Shaking his head to clear it of weighty thoughts, Harry finally began to focus on his meal and packed it away. By the time the desserts appeared he felt much more like himself and had a bit of his favorite treacle tart before finally getting up and finding Luna at the Ravenclaw table. "Hey, I'm going to go ahead and get a start on my homework. If I have time when I'm finished I'll come find you, but I'm not really sure how long it's going to be. Was planning on working on things after the match but because of what happened that didn't really happen." he explained to her.
Luna finished eating her chocolate pudding and flashed him a bright smile. "Okay Harry, just do your best. We'll have plenty of time together on other days if we can't make it happen today. So don't worry about rushing, okay?" she asked him, getting a nod from Harry in response. "Excellent, I should probably be catching up on my work as well now that you mention it. So don't feel too bad about missing out on an exciting day. I'd say we could study together, but I would probably get too distracted and start snogging you. Can't have that, can we?" she asked him, looking to read his response.
Harry blushed right on cue and let out a laugh. "You're adorable. And probably right, we would just keep distracting each other. Have a good day, Luna." he said, leaning down to kiss her cheek before leaving the Great Hall and setting out to get caught up on his classes.
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Harry did as he said he was going to, and set to on the essays he needed to do with a will not seen in previous years. So far this year he had been doing his homework on his own instead of with Ron and Hermione, and he'd noticed that without the distractions of others he had been able to focus much better. He knocked out DADA first, followed by Potions and Charms. Things were coming along quite nicely and his fellow Gryffindors in the common room were giving him room to work where he'd set up on a comfortable rug near the fire. All of that abruptly changed when an angry Ron came in, walking straight over to Harry. "Mate, we need to talk. Why don't we head to our dorm?" he suggested, voice brimming with the famous Weasley temper he was attempting to rein in as much as he could. His face was red from the strain of that difficult task.
Looking up at his friend, he took in the situation and Harry crossed his arms. "I'm in the middle of working on my classes Ron, I'm not moving. You can say whatever it is you have to say right here, or you can wait until I'm done." he told him, presenting him with two options that he was sure Ron wouldn't be a fan of. If Ron wanted to make a scene he would be heard just as easily from their dorm as he would in the middle of the common room. As seen with Mrs. Weasley's famous howlers, they could yell with the best of them when they needed to. Harry could only assume that Ron had probably found out about his decision to essentially cut Ginny out of his life at the moment and was here to play devil's advocate for her. He was rather curious what arguments he could possibly have to defend her and try to persuade him that he was wrong in his decision, so he waited patiently for his friend to present said arguments.
Clearly that wasn't the answer Ron had been expecting from him, and it stopped him in his tracks for a moment as he weighed whether confronting him where others could hear was worth it. Eventually he reached a conclusion and took a seat in the armchair next to him, turning it so that it faced away from the rest of the room. "Okay, I guess this'll have to do, then. Look, Harry...I know Ginny kissing you out of the blue like that isn't acceptable behavior, and believe me I'm not trying to say you should just brush it off. But, did you have to give her an ultimatum like that? After Lavender and I broke off to do our own thing I found my little sister crying in a broom closet. She's a wreck right now and she needs her friends. I'll be honest with you, our group is all she's got here at Hogwarts. If you cut her out, she doesn't have much left. Can you reconsider?" he asked, giving him a pleading look as he tried to appeal to Harry's good graces.
Hearing this from Ron didn't surprise him in the slightest, but it did make him feel rather sad. When Harry's name came out of the goblet of fire in fourth year Ron failed to have his back, and even though their friendship had survived the breach in their trust had never really recovered. It was a big part of the reason why he had started to rely more and more on Hermione when it came to serious matters. Now here he was in his first serious relationship and Ron is sticking up for his sister without even having asked how Harry was doing after what happened. Sure he'd probably seen him and Luna holding hands but he hadn't asked if they were okay, if Luna was alright having her oldest friend make a move on her boyfriend. He wasn't angry any longer with Ron, he was past that point. All that was left now was the bitter taste of disappointment. After a long pause as those thoughts and feelings hit him like a wave and threatened to pull him under he raised his head to look at Ron. "You don't understand, Ron. If I try to brush this under the rug and keep pretending like nothing happened that's basically like telling Luna that what Ginny did doesn't deserve consequences. She made a choice, and it was a poor one. I'll tell you what I told her, mate...it's between Luna and Ginny now. Until they work it out, I am not going to put myself in a situation where Luna could misconstrue what's happening between us. She's important to me, too." he told him calmly. Once he was done Harry waited for an explosion of Ron's temper or a complaint, but all he got was a thoughtful silence as his friend thought over what he'd just said.
Ron looked over at Harry and brushed his messy red hair out of his eyes before putting a hand on his shoulder. "I can respect that. If Ginny asks I'll tell her she needs to respect your decision, too. You're right...this isn't just about what is happening to her. Guess I just let my protective streak get the better of me. Are you and Luna, I mean...you worked it out, yeah?" he asked him, biting his lip as he knew it was probably a sensitive subject right now. Even though he thought they had, it obviously hadn't come without a bit of a row judging from his split lip and the bruise that was forming on his cheek. It was rather difficult to imagine Luna slapping someone so hard as to cause that much damage, but clearly she packed a bigger punch than one would think.
Clearly asking about us was an afterthought, but it's better than nothing. Maybe there's hope for him yet. Harry appreciated the sentiment and gave him a nod before brushing off his hand. "Yeah, I suppose we did manage to figure it out. I...I think we'll be stronger for it, but...the pain from it all is still fresh. I've never been more scared of losing anything in my life. When I finally got to talk to her I thought that it was going to be it. Ginny wasn't the only one who made a mistake I shouldn't have given her the chance to kiss me in the first place, either." he admitted. It hadn't been intentional, but without thinking about it he'd given a vulnerable Ginny the chance to make her move by offering comfort. All he could do now was try to learn from the mistake and not repeat it in the future. "I don't know how or why Luna found it in herself to trust me again not to hurt her, but she did. Having known for a brief time what it was like to imagine a life without her, I don't ever want to go through that again. So I'm being careful and trying to be more considerate of her, because she deserves better." he explained, wiping away a few tears that had begun to fall as he talked to his friend.
Seeing his best mate like that shocked Ron, because the two of them had only been dating for a short time. Most teen romances he knew were either brief flings or just about exploring the world of snogging like he was doing with Lavender, but clearly Harry and Luna were attempting to build something much more permanent. Now it started to make sense why Harry had reacted so harshly when Ginny interfered. "That's a lot to deal with, mate. I wish you the best of luck." he told him, about to get up before he paused and sat back down. "Do-do you love her, Harry?" he asked him.
The question was one hadn't been remotely prepared for, and Harry's head began to spin as he tried to figure out some sort of answer. The closest thing he'd had to seeing any sort of love had been his experiences with the Weasley family, Sirius, and the friendship love he shared with Ron and Hermione. Cho Chang had been nothing more than an ill-considered crush. What he felt for Luna was certainly a powerful feeling, but he had nothing to really compare it to in terms of a romantic relationship. He thought about what people said about love, though...how people only wanted what was best for the other person no matter the cost to themselves. That was why he'd been preparing himself for Luna to break up with him, because after Ginny kissed him he thought she deserved much better than someone like him. Not only that, but he also thought of her all the time and would try to do anything to make her smile or hear her laugh at a silly joke. His life only felt complete when they were together, balancing each other out and being there to listen to whatever the other had to say. He didn't have to hide around her, and she didn't have to hide around him. Harry didn't know if that's what love was, but he thought that sort of thing was what he wanted it to be. A few more tears spilled over, and he wiped at them again before giving Ron a shrug and a sheepish smile. "You know Ron, I think I do. I love Luna Lovegood." he said, a warm feeling of contentment washing over him as he said it out loud for the first time.
Even Ron could tell that coming to that realization was an important moment for Harry and reached over to pull him into a hug, thumping him on the back as he did before letting go. "Good on you. You do what you have to do and don't let her down, Harry. The rest of us will manage." he told him, before turning the armchair back around and leaving Harry to his homework as he went up to their dorm.
Of all the people he would admit something like that to he never would have guessed in a million years that it would be Ron. His friend's actions really showed that people could always surprise you. Not really feeling like doing homework after such a deep conversation, he began to organize his things and packed them into a neat pile. The essays he tied up with ribbons and put them on top of the pile of his school books before he took it all up to place by his bed. Once that was done, Harry pulled out the Marauder's Map and went once again in search of Luna. While he wasn't ready to tell her just yet about his being in love with her, he definitely wanted to spend some quality time with his incredible girlfriend.
