Title: Little Gestures We Make
Rating: PG-13
Author: Jmaria
Disclaimer: JK owns all, I'm just playing with them
Setting/Summary: Post 7th year. Little gestures we make, can lead up to a very blissful ending.
Pairings: Blaise/Luna, Marcus/Katie, Oliver/Penelope, and mentions of Percy/Tonks, Marcus/Tonks
A/N: Yule Challenge response. Managed to include : a secret admirer, enchanted mistletoe, almond crescent cookies, Holly, and a Yule log (the edible kind).
Little Gestures We Make
The war was over, only two and a half years after it began. Katie Bell sighed as she watched most of her compatriots having a blast on this oh-so-festive holiday. She wasn't having the time of her life. Angelina and Alicia were off joking with the Weasley twins and Lee Jordan. Oliver Wood, the former love of her life, was draped over Penelope Clearwater - much to the ire of Percy Weasley. He was stuck in a conversation with Nymphandora Tonks by the punch bowl, and she swore that before he'd clamped eyes on Penelope that he'd actually cracked a smile at whatever it was Tonks was saying. Poor Percy, he'd really fouled things up for himself, the hapless git that he was.
To make matters worse, the old Slytherin gang was hanging about. They had fought in the war, after all. That didn't mean she had to like it. Especially since Flint, Higgs and Pucey were all boring holes into the wall behind her. She'd happily accept them as angry glares. Dear Merlin, let them be angry glares. That was the one thing she didn't need - the lustful ogling of those perverts.
"Hullo Katie." Katie jumped a foot off the floor, jostling the cup of punch in her hand. She spun around to face Luna Lovegood, and she couldn't help the sigh of relief that escaped her lips.
"Hi Luna. Are you having a good time?" Katie didn't add that she thought Luna deserved this party. She'd lost her father, her home, and three fingers on her left hand in the war. The mediwitches had only been able to save two of them, but her ring finger had been torn off completely.
"Well, Zabini is being rather irksome, but other than that I'm having a splendid time. I brought you a cookie. You looked hungry, and Ron was devouring most of them. It was the last almond crescent." Luna smiled, and her face lost that dream-like quality it always seemed to have. It became real, and Katie remembered the last time they had talked about cookies. It had been when they were trapped together in the Astronomy Tower during the final battle. Katie had told her how the almond crescents were her favorites.
"Thank you." Katie happily munched on the cookie. "So why is Zabini being irksome now?"
"He's telling me I should have dressed up more to this little party. Show off some cleavage." Luna sighed as she glanced over at the tall, dark haired wizard with a jagged scar down his left cheek. He was still handsome, and was extremely lucky he still had a face. Luna'd lost a finger shoving him out of the way of the explosion that had torn the Astronomy tower in two.
"Well, he did tell us he was a breast man." Katie giggled like a child as she remembered the conversation the three of them had had up in the old Astronomy tower when they were trapped up there.
Katie, Blaise, and Luna had been the only survivors. Seamus Finnigan and Roger Davies had been thrown from the tower in the explosion. Seamus was killed instantly, and Roger died weeks later at St. Mungo's. Blaise and Katie had worked mercilessly to keep Luna conscious, engaging the girl in the outlandish conversation that revealed Zabini to like women who had breasts and were a little off-kilter, Katie to admit she liked well-toned bodies on men, and their mutual cookie fascination. Being trapped in the tower had changed Blaise, and it had changed the way Katie and Luna looked at him. Moreover, it changed the way he looked at Luna. Katie thought it was rather sweet, in his overly perverted way of doing things to show Luna that he cared. Or at least wanted to pay her back for saving his life.
"Yes, well, the corks would have just fallen in there and then he'd complain when I'd have to dig them out again." Luna sighed. "Oh, I came over here to tell you to be careful round the strategically placed mistletoe."
"Why?"
"The Weasley twins have enchanted them to trap the unwilling victims beneath them." A grin broke out on Luna's face. "Or that's what it does now."
"You mean you went and mucked up their charm to have one of your little quirks." Katie said knowingly.
"Well, they only set it to let out a farting noise. Now it rates the kiss, and if you don't manage a 5.0, you can't get out."
"Luna!" Katie whirled around on Luna, nearly dropping the remains of the cookie. The light caught the silver chain around her throat.
"What?"
"Have you started experimenting again?" Katie asked, hoping that the younger woman had.
Luna had stopped doing her experiments after the explosion. She'd been working with the Weasley twins for a year or so when they were trapped. Which explained how she'd fiddled with the mistletoe
"Ooh, that's pretty Katie. Wherever did you get it?" Luna fingered the tiny silver charm. "It's a Claddagh isn't it?"
"Yes. And it came by owl this morning. I'm not really sure who sent it to me, but . . ." Katie let her voice trail off as her eyes traveled over toward Oliver. "He's the only one who would send me something like this."
Luna stared at Katie as if she'd grown three heads. Katie had told them, up in the tower not more than two months ago, that she'd always hoped to get back with Oliver. Luna didn't think the thick-headed Keeper deserved her, or even wanted her, but Katie wanted the dream. Luna also didn't let on that she knew who'd actually sent the necklace.
"Friendship, loyalty, love." Luna said softly. "Maybe Blaise sent it?"
"Zabini? Why would he send me something?"
"Well, he sent me a present by owl this morning." Luna paused for a beat. "Of course, it was a pair of sexy knickers that he'll most likely never see on me. But still, it was the thought that counted."
"Luna, he - "
"He who?" A deep voice said from behind them. Katie rolled her eyes. Of course, where Luna went, Blaise was never too far behind.
"Luna was just telling me who she hoped to show those fancy knickers you gave her to." Katie smiled at Luna's slightly confused look. "I think Neville will fall over when you show them to him." Luna beamed at her.
"Yes, I believe I'll just go and tell him all about that -" Luna turned to go tell Neville, leaving Katie and Blaise alone.
"Bell, you can disguise yourself as a nice girl all that you want, but you are a demon inside." Blaise sneered playfully at Katie.
"Try and catch her under the mistletoe." Katie smiled. Luna had him wrapped around her finger, and for some reason, she liked to keep him there on the point of desiring. That and she got a kick from driving him berserk.
"Nice gift you got there, Bell." Blaise gestured to her necklace before going after Luna
"How did you -?" Katie stood there confused for a moment before going over to the desert table. "At least there's some Yule log cake left."
Too bad that it was over by Oliver and Penelope.
Marcus Flint glared in the direction of Katie 'Annoyingly-Gryffindor' Bell. She smiled politely at Wood and the bint on his arm. She'd spent most of the night by herself, briefly chatting up Zabini and Lovegood.
"Wotcher, Flinty." Tonks popped up beside him. "You know, staring at her won't make her notice that that pretty little bauble round her throat's from you. It'll just frighten her, which you do seem to have a knack for."
"Nymph, what are you talking about?" Marcus sneered.
"I was with you when you bought that in the little Muggle jewelry shop we were stationed at, Flint. And I was there when we pulled her out of the Astronomy tower. And I saw the blush on your face when she kissed you."
"Shut your trap, Tonks." Marcus hissed at her as he dragged her behind the Holly garland draped doorway. "You talk far too much."
"Yeah, life's a bitch that way. How long have you been pining after her, Flint? Leaving little daisy chains on her windowsill, and jewelry in her Christmas stocking?" Tonks grinned. "Well, I suppose you can't just have at her like you did with me. Luna said the best way to get her to notice you, is through the mistletoe. That way you get what you want. She won't refuse, she's a stickler for tradition."
With that said, Tonks grinned at him, kissed him on the forehead and turned back to Percy. Marcus stared after her, fond memories on his mind.
"That's great Oliver, I'm glad to hear that you two are - getting married." Katie's smile was as fake as the cheerful sound to her words.
"Yeah, the war and all that just threw us together."
"It did seem to do that. Well, I think I'll just go track down Alicia and Angelina. Take them some of this cake. You know how they love it." Katie quickly fled from the table, eager to just apparate home and get far, far away from the happy couple. But something big, solid and warm stopped her dead in her tracks. Angry words rose in her mind, but they got stuck in her throat when she looked up into the face of Marcus Flint. She gulped. "'Scuse me, Flint. Just on my way over to Angie and Ally."
"Right."
"Well, I'll just -" But when she tried to move, her feet seemed to be stuck. "Oh no." She glanced up. Sure enough, she was trapped under the mistletoe - with Marcus Flint.
"Mistletoe." Marcus said slowly.
"Yeah, I kinda noticed that, Flint." Katie snapped. "Look, let's just get this over with. I've better things to do with my night that to sit -"
Katie didn't get the rest of her rant out, because Flint really didn't seem to need all that prodding. His arms wrapped around her, one hand on the back of her head and the other on the small of her back. His lips were warm against hers, and his mouth was prodding hers open. Katie wrapped her arms around his shoulders and leaned into his kiss. It had been a damn long time since she'd kissed a guy, and Roger hadn't been half as good as Flint seemed to be. She moaned loudly, forgetting that she was in the middle of a crowded ballroom.
"You two've been released for three minutes!" Fred - or was it George- yelled.
"And you broke the scorecard." Luna giggled.
"Oh." Katie said dumbly, her mind warm and fuzzy feeling. Marcus gave her a lazy grin.
"I'll take that as a thank you for the gift?" He said, fingering the necklace. "I love the sound you make, Bell."
"Oh."