Discovering a lost heart

Author's notes: This was an interesting chapter for me to write, as I finally realised that I hadn't planned as well as I had hoped. This was one of three possible outcomes that I considered, but this was the best one, so I'm happy with it. I finally got the chance to bring in other popular HP-characters, and I hope you will like my portrayal of them.

Disclaimer: I still don't own Harry Potter or Ronald or Luna or anyone. I don't even own myself, Microsoft bought me up. And no, I don't make any money on this. Even if I did, it would all go to Bill Gates.

Chapter 3, Resolutions.

As she was about to turn around, she heard a sudden sound. It was a rather odd sound, so she quicly turned to its source. To her right along the lake, a blond boy in Slytherin clothes was sauntering towards her. She suddenly recognised him as the seeker for the Slytherin team, Draco Malfoy. One of those rich kids that seemed to be of the opinion that everyone else was beneeth him. She now saw that the strange sound she had heard was coming from his mouth. It looked as though he was laughing, although she had never heard such a sound constitute as laughter before. The sound spoke more of contempt than pure mirth, though it did seem that he was enjoying himself. As Luna had poor experience from being the butt of a Slytherin's joke, she turned around to make her way in the opposite direction. Unfortunately though, she wasn't fast enough.

"Well, well. If it isn't the famous Loony Lovegood," he yelled out to her. "What's the matter? Did your father's paper go bankrupt again?"

At first she wondered what on Earth he was talking about, but as she remembered herself, her hands raced up to her cheeks. Her face was still showing signs of having crying, very obvious signs at that. She ran her fingers along the path of semi-dryed tears that were running down her cheeks.

"No, wait, I know," the horrible boy continued. "St Potter has withdrawn his support from the lunatics, to focus his attention on protecting the mudbloods."

"Leave her alone, Malfoy!"

Luna turned around. Ronald. He looked mad as he walked up to the two of them, mad at Malfoy.

"Well, if it isn't the Weasel. Feeling a bit protective over your girlfriend, are you?"

Luna felt her heart skip a beat, and blushed. Ronald defending her? She thought that she was going to start crying again, but thinking about it made her turn her back to Ronald. She still wasn't sure if she wanted him to see her cry.

"She's not my girlfriend!" Ron excalimed with feeling. He didn't want her to be more teased by Malfoy than she appearantly already was. "But I don't want you to be picking on a friend of mine."

"So you heard that bit about St Potter, eh?"

"No," Ron said calmly. "But I saw her cry. And you shouldn't make one of my friends cry, Malfoy! I happen to be in the perfect mood to wipe that smile off your face with my fist."

"Sorry to disappoint you, Weasley," Malfoy smirked. "But she was already crying before I even opened my mouth."

Ron quickly turned to look at Luna, who was still determined not to let hims see her like that. He didn't know what to make of her backside turned to him.

"Perhaps you're the one to blame, instead of me," Malfoy continued, happy to bring misery about. He watched Ron as his cheeks turned crimson red. "It would seem that way." Draco was enjoying himself greatly. It wasn't everyday you could spread such discontent amongst such lowlifes as the Weasleys and the Lovegoods. Mostly it was only every other day. "Well, I have business elsewhere, so I think I'll leave you lovebirds here to sort out your own problems." Whistling merrily, Draco made his way back to the castle, leaving two very uncomfortable and troubled teenagers behind him.

Ron couldn't stop looking at Luna's back. Had he been responsible? He had after all been the last one to talk to Luna before Draco did. But should he really take Draco's word on it? Well, considering that she wouldn't even look at him, it could be fairly safe to assume that he was responsible, and that Draco had just been kicking her while she was down. He felt like strangling the little ferret for doing that, but there were more important matters to take care of now. Luna. He walked up to her, as she was standing with her back slightly hunched, her face aimed almost directly down to the ground.

Mustn't let him see me like this. Mustn't let him see me. Mustn't let him. Mustn't let him. Luna was closing her eyes so hard that it almost hurt. If he sees me crying, I will feel like a total idiot.

"You know, closing your eyes don't make you invisible."

Hearing that, she suddenly opened her eyes. Ronald's face was inches from her own. With a gasp, she quickly retracted herself, only to fall on her bottom. In front of her, she could see Ronald standing, slightly bending his knees and his side so that he could face her on the spot she had been standing a moment ago. Now she felt less like a total idiot, and more like a complete and utterly ridiculous idiot. Straightening himself up, he turned to give her a helping hand. She took it gladly, and once on steady feet, she started to brush herself off. Turning around in the opposite direction, she quickly said:

"Thanks, bye, gotta go."

"No, wait!"

Once more a arm was grabbed, but this time it was Ron who grabbed Luna's arm. And he knew then that he never wanted to let go of it. Though he didn't knew why or how he knew it, he was certain that it was true.

Luna was stunned. Frozen to the ground. He was holding her arm, he didn't want to let her go away. Why? Why couldn't she just go away to be alone in peace? Why did he want to humiliate her like this? If he knew that she was crying over him, then she would never be able to live it down. Why couldn't she just mourn his rejection in peace? Instantly, she caught up with herself. He hadn't rejected her, he never had the chance, she knew how he felt before he knew how she felt. So was she rejected or was she just not loved? Did it matter? She was still hurt.

"Luna. Is it true what Malfoy said?" He looked at her silent backside. "That you were already crying, when he started bothering you, I mean."

Slowly, she nodded. Might as well admit the truth and get it over with.

"So it was something that I had said, that made you cry."

Slowly, and more reluctantly, she nodded. He couldn't she her closing her eyes tightly, desperate to squeeze out the last tears.

"Oh. I think that I understand," he said, letting go of her arm.

Released from his grip, she straightened herself up and wiped her face with her sleeve. She knew that it was inevitable for him to figure it out. Might as well face it with some of her pride intact. She turned around to face him.

"You were hoping that if me and Hermione got it together, you could be with Harry."

He said it calmly, trying to remain as emotionless as possible. He didn't want to reveal what he was feeling to her, not until he was certain of what was really going on.

Luna couldn't believe what she was hearing. She stared at the boy in front of her, like he was a yellowgreen martian with pink stripes. And then, unable to contain herself, she burst out in a bubbling laughter. In fact she laughed so hard, that she had to clutch her stomach and couldn't stand upright. Ronald stared at her perplexed, his eyes wide open.

"What the bloody hell are you laughing about?" Ron said, not understanding what could have been so incredibly amusing about what he just said.

"You ...(haha)... really ...(giggle)... believe that?" She asked, fighting against the tidal wave of laughter inside of her. Her eyes were once more filling up with tears, but she frankly couldn't care less.

"Well, what else could it be about?"

Instantly Luna ceased to laugh, burying her mirth down for later. Now was the time to get to business.

"Ronald, isn't it obvious?"

Ron shook his head vehemently. There was no good enough explanation for her behaviour unless...

"I love you, Ronald!" she exclaimed, without even thinking about what she was doing.

Stunned, he stared at her. What did she just say? She loves me? Me? How's that even possible? I mean, shouldn't I have seen it coming? The answer was no. He had never bothered to look close enough to see it coming. But still... Me?

Luna looked at him. He looked kind of cute with his mouth hanging open like that. Not exactly the way she had imagined him looking like, but it was close enough. Smiling to herself she was happy that she had finally got it out into the open, it didn't really matter to her now if he didn't feel the same. Atleast she now wouldn't spend the rest of her life wondering about what might have been. Since Ronald had let go of her a long time ago, and he seemed quite preoccupied at the moment, she decided to go back to her dorm for now. And so she did, leaving Ronald still staring empty ahead of him, his mouth hanging open.

She loves me? Why? Why would she love me? I'm not all that good looking. I'm not famous. I don't even know her that well. I just met her little over a year ago. But during that time he had to admit to himself, that he had gotten quite close to her actually. He didnt really know what it was about her, but he sometimes found it hard not to think about her. No matter if it was something that she had said or something that she had done, he remembered it. Simply because it was she who had done it. He remembered how she had laughed at his joke on the trainride, that very first time when he met her. He remebered how even when his mind was not alright, she had stood by him and given him support. Although that was probably a dream or a hallucination induced by his state of mind at the time. Now that he thought about it, she had always been there for him, from the moment they met. But of course that had only been a little over a year ago. He had known Hermione forever, and she was the one he loved. The one who, apparently, also Harry loved. And who loved Harry back. Surprised for a moment, Ron stood still contemplating his feelings. There was something he didn't feel, that he had the vague sense of knowing that he should be feeling. It was something that he had felt earlier that day, that much he was sure of. Thinking back to what he did then, he suddenly felt embarrassed. He had had no right to act the way he did, no matter if they had kept a secret from him or not. It wasn't his business to begin with. Although he was certain that it had felt like his business back then. He shrugged his shoulders, realising that there was only one thing left for him to do. So he made his way back to the Gryffindor tower.

Luna walked through the corridors, heading as directly for the Ravenclaw common room as possible. She tried to seem as casual as possible, but most of all she wanted to run down the corridor, up to her bedroom and hug her pillow tightly to herself. She was so focused on appearing not to be in a hurry, that she did not notice that she was being watched.

'Interesting' thought the figure. 'Very interesting. She is taking things a whole lot better than I had thought that she would. Perhaps this will go even smother than previously thought.' With that thought, the figure withdrew into the shadows, turning around and walking towards a door. With a swish of cloth, there was no one to be seen in the corridor. Until a certain red-haired Gryffindor showed up.

Ginny looked down the corridor where she thought that she had seen Luna go into. She couldn't understand why Luna had completely ignored her before, passing by her as she wasn't even there. It was highly impolite and unusual for Luna to do so. Especially since Luna had promised to tell her about everything. Luna always kept her promises to Ginny and she never ignored her like that. Ginny thought of going after her friend and demand an explanation, but realised that it would be a futile task if she had already entered her common room. Ginny didn't know the Ravenclaw password. She had almost resigned herself completely to the idea of having to wait till the next time she met her, when an idea struck her. Why not ask her brother directly? It would of course take a bit of persuasion, but she might just get him to tell her what he thought of Luna's confession. And if she couldn't get him to talk, then she would just have to wait for Luna. She had nothing to lose. Whistling a merry tune, she walked leisurely to the Gryffindor tower.

When Ron returned to the Gryffindor tower, the first thing he saw was Harry sitting in an armchair, apparently catching up on his homework. Quietly he approached him, desperately trying to think of what to say. He realised only now that he hadn't given much thought to that, and was feeling a bit nervous. For some odd reason he was feeling ashamed for having stormed out like he did before, and he was worried that Harry might be angry with him for doing so. So he decided to start with an apology.

"Ehm, Ha-arry." God, why did he sound like Colin Creevey for heaven's sake?

Harry looked up at his friend surprised at his sudden presence. He could have sworn that he was all alone in the common room. At the sight of Ron he didn't really know how to react, he wasn't sure who had the right to be angry at whom and he certainly didn't want a repeat of that incident in their forth year. Best to go out carefully.

"Hi, Ron. How are you feeling now?"

"Awful." Ron said with a tone of sadness.

"Really?" said Harry, getting a bit angry. Forget about being civil. "Was it that horrible to see me kiss a girl?"

"What? No, no," Ro hurriedly explained himself. "What I mean is that I feel awful about storming out like that. I put you in an akward position there."

"Oh, don't worry about it," said Harry with a smile. There was something odd about Ron, he didn't behave like he had thought he would. "We were alone, so you didn't exactly cause a scene or so. No hard feelings."

"Really?" said Ron, feeling relieved. "Because I came to apologise for my behaviour, you see."

"Of course, I'm afraid that I can only answer for myself," continued Harry, putting away his homework so he could stand up straight. "Hermione seemed quite upset at you."

"Oh?" Ron felt less relieved.

"Not to worry, though," said Harry. "She mostly seemed disappointed that you had to find out about it this way."

"Oh, I see," said Ron. "By the way, when did this happen? I mean when did you...?" Ron wasn't sure on how to phrase his question.

"I'm not quite sure myself. In fact, I was as surprised over that kiss as you were." Harry seemed a bit emberrased at admitting it.

"You mean," said Ron. "That that was your first kiss together?"

"Yeah, I'd think so." Harry became slightly red. "Actually it was our first of anything, I hadn't even realised that we both felt that strongly for each other until then."

Ron's ears turned a brilliant scarlet. He had walked in on their first kiss? Harry hadn't known himself what was going on before that? They hadn't kept a secret relationship under his nose all of the time? He had gotten angry at them for nothing, nothing at all. His face soon matched his ears.

"I'm really sorry, mate," Ron truely sounded sorry. "I really didn't mean to walk in on you like that. And about my reaction..."

"Like I said, don't worry," Harry could understand him. "There are no hard feelings between us."

Ron stood quietly for a while, trying to think of any way to change the subject.

"You know," said Harry all of a sudden. "I think that you said something before about having some news or something."

Ron tried to remember what it had been about, but he honestly couldn't. Too many other things had happened since then this day.

"Probably nothing important," he brushed it off. "Hey, you wanna go out and get some quidditch practice done today?"

"Sure," said Harry. "Let's go get our broomsticks."

A moment later the two boys were heading for the quidditch field, talking happily about the last quidditch match they had had. And about the time that they had reached the entrance hall, Ginny walked in to the common room.