19

Dead Grass

Ginny walked out of the library. She had gotten next to nothing done and made her leave feeling lonely, irritable, and useless. She put the papers back in her bag, and glanced up, getting ready to close the flap, but when she saw Harry and Luna walking towards her, she pretended to be rummaging in her pack again.

Luna saw her glance up and then hurriedly look away. "Ginny," she called, wondering what that had been about.

Ginny looked up as if she hadn't noticed Luna and Harry before. "Oh, hi, Luna, Harry," she said, forcing a smile to her lips.

Harry looked so . . . happy. She couldn't ruin this for him, but Luna had practically dragged him to a stop in front of her. Where had they been headed anyway?

On cue, Luna said, "Harry and I are going to the lake for a bit of squid-watching," she said, "Care to come?"

"Oh no, I couldn't," Ginny said, hoping she wouldn't be pressured any further.

Luna laughed, her orb-like eyes glinting merrily. "Of course you could. Come along before I jinx you," she said, and Ginny couldn't tell whether she was joking or not.

"I don't want to intrude," Ginny said, and Luna guffawed.

"Intrude on what? Everyone is welcome to come watch the squid with us, if they like."

Harry looked ready to open his mouth and say something, but he merely looked at Ginny expectantly.

Ginny shoved back a sigh. "Well, all right then. As long as you're okay with it," she said.

Luna laughed again. She seemed to be in a mood that made most everything said funny. She pulled her wand out of from behind her ear and muttered something. Three Hydro-Beast Scopes shot out of her wand and floated in midair in front of her. The Hydro-Beast Scopes, or Hydro Scopes as some called them, looked somewhat like telescopes but instead of having one view hole at the end, the shaft branched off into two. "Nifty," Luna muttered, grabbing one and tapping her wand to it, uttering another spell. She re-tucked her wand behind her ear and grinned at Ginny. She looked at her through the scope, frowning as a green-blue haze consumed her friend. 'Sadness and jealousy?" she thought, looking away and putting the Hydro Spot into her pocket. "Take one each," she directed when she noticed that neither of her friends had made a move to grab a scope from the air.

Harry did as she said and put a Hydro Scope in his pocket. Ginny eventually followed suit, and the trio was off.

Ginny felt like a fifth wheel being dragged along at the back of the procession of wheels that were meant to be there. She lagged behind, staring as Luna deliberately laced her fingers with Harry's. Of course, what was she supposed to do? She was his girlfriend, after all.

Luna glanced back at her. "Do keep up, Ginerva," she said. Ginny could have sworn Luna had looked at where her gaze had fallen to and nodded at her, but maybe it was just paranoia sending her mind into a state of hallucination.

The pair and their fifth wheel reached the lake in due time and situated themselves under a tree. Luna leaned on Harry's shoulder, looking out at the squid with her scope. Occasionally, she would look over at Ginny with it, and Ginny would hurriedly pretend that she had been looking out at the lake the entire time and had not been glancing ever so enviously at her friend and her crush.

Ginny couldn't take it anymore. It almost seemed like Luna would do something like whisper something into Harry's ear and then look at her just to see a reaction. Did she know, or was she telling Harry things about her? Once, Luna had giggled uncharacteristically at something Harry had said and had kissed him on the cheek. Not a second after, she had looked at Ginny and asked her how she was getting along and how she was enjoying the show. Ginny assumed she meant the squid, but in her mind, it registered as the couple's display of affection.

Before she could do anything, Luna scooted away from Harry and wrapped her arms around her knees, which she had pulled up to her chest. "So, Ginny," she began as Harry got up to skip stones on the lake's surface, "Harry tells me that you're going with Neville to the ball?"

Ginny nodded. "Oh, yes. I don't know why though. I learned in third year that he can't dance worth a Knut."

Luna chewed on this. "Well, he is nice though. Maybe you're going with him because of that."

"Is that why you're going with Harry?" Ginny blurted, not intending to say what she had.

Luna kept her face straight, her orbs flashing with an unreadable emotion. "Yes," she murmured, "He can't skip rocks worth a dead muskrat, though," she added, smiling as Harry accidentally chucked a rock into the water with a small splash.

Ginny chuckled. "No, I suppose not."

"Shall we show him how it's done?" Luna asked.

"I can't skip either," Ginny admitted.

Luna stood and pulled Ginny up too. "I guess I'll be showing the both of you how it's done then," she said. It was quite odd the Luna had placed Ginny in between Harry and herself.

So it was that the pair and the extra wheel skipped-mostly chucked-rocks for quite a long time. None of them realized how odd it was that even though the cold of winter had come, the lake had remained as wet as it was during the spring. It also didn't occur to them how uncharacteristically warm it was; they didn't even need winter robes outside. Only in the morning did they find any need for that type of extra warmth. Even if they had noticed, though they would have just shrugged it off as climatic changes. Anyone would have.

Ginny was having an amazingly good time with her two friends. She laughed when they did, and was thoroughly enjoying herself, but she got tired of standing for so long and sat down on the ground, laying back in the dead grass.

Luna pursued this task, and Harry did too soon after. Ginny couldn't help but notice how close Harry was to her. She could almost feel his body heat emanating from his flesh. She felt that pang of nervousness and anxiety rise in her again and her heartbeat quickened.

Luna laughed suddenly. "You two couldn't skip rocks if someone paid you," she said, basking in her triumph.

Ginny looked at her, mostly to keep herself from looking at Harry. "I told you I couldn't skip rocks," she complained.

Harry laughed.

Ginny felt her cheeks warming as his genuine laughter engulfed her mind. She focused on the overcast sky, watching the mind numbing swirls of clouds that would hopefully bring snow for the ball. She glanced at Luna to find her staring at the clouds too. She briefly wondered what was on her mind.

Harry looked at Ginny. Her red hair was spread out on the grass beneath her head, and her cheeks were tinged with pink. She was looking at the clouds. Harry looked away quickly. He couldn't be checking her out, for that was what he had been doing. He had a girlfriend, for cripes sakes. He sat up and looked over at Luna. Somehow, she wouldn't have officially registered as attractive. Though her hair was long and blonde and she was far from fat, she had many flaws in the way of looks, the most crucial being her huge eyes; they had never seemed to fit her. Another thing was her definite twig-like appearance; she was skinny, nearly too skinny. Harry had never cared about appearance though when it came to people, excluding Cho. What mattered to him was the personality of the person. Luna had a great personality, an insane one, yes, but a great one none-the-less.

Harry smiled, but he suddenly felt hungry. It was then that he remembered that it was still before eight o'clock and he hadn't had breakfast. It was the holidays, and he was supposed to be sleeping in, yet he was up at the crack of dawn.

"What do you two say to getting some breakfast?" he asked, beginning to get up.

"Sure," Ginny said, but if she had known that Luna was going to refuse the suggestion, she would have done so as well.

Luna smiled in the dreamy way she always did. "You two go up without me. The clouds have captivated me," she said, folding her arms behind her head.

Harry helped Ginny up and then burst into laughter at the appearance of the back of her shirt; it was covered in dead grass.

Ginny grinned wanly. "Luna could you help get this grass off?" she asked, knowing she couldn't do it by herself.

Luna responded only by humming a tune to herself.

Harry looked at his girlfriend, and shrugged. "I'll do it, if you want," he proposed.

Actually, Ginny did want. She wanted very much, but she knew that things would only get worse if she gave in to her wants. She was shocked at herself when she shrugged in acceptance to Harry's offer.

Harry began brushing the grass off, and no matter how hard Ginny tried to ignore it, she couldn't stop the fluttering in her stomach or the rapid acceleration of her heartbeat. She almost gasped as his hand went to her lower back to brush off the debris there. He didn't dare go any lower, she hoped, and thankfully, his hand only went a small distance below where it had been and then recoiled.

"All done," Harry said.

"Thanks," Ginny said quietly, feeling quite scandalized, though she knew Harry had meant no harm or offence.

Harry turned and began up the hill as Ginny grabbed her bag from under the bald tree and hurried to catch up with him.

They had gone halfway to the castle in silence when Ginny decided to look back at Luna and could have sworn Luna had her Hydro Scope out and was looking at them through it.