The Love of a Lion

Chapter 6

Christmastime is Here

Draft 2

"What a very happy Christmas." Ron muttered, in disgust as he sat in his room. "There's just too many godforsaken people here!" He flopped back on his bed. "What to do about her..." Ron thought sighing.

"Yo!" George Weasley said, knocking on the door. "You called for me, so white want?"

Ron grinned. Why did he think this was a good idea? "I need...girl advice." Ron gulped then made a string of funny noises. "She makes me so nervous."

"Girl advice?" George made a noise sort of like stifling laughter. Oddly, one third of it was high pitched.

"Yeah...it's...it's..." he muttered something incomprehensible.

"Hang on, we can't talk about this in the hall." George fiddled with the doorknob. "Dammit...stuck. Expelliarmus!" The door blew off its hinges. The redheaded face of George grinned as he stepped inside, followed by Bill Weasley and his fiancee Fleur Delacour.

"What?" Ron shouted. "Not you too!"

"White mean?" Bill said, furrowing his brow. Ron just sighed. 'NOT Fleur! Anybody but Fleur!'

"Never mind." Ron said, rubbing his forehead. "Anyhoo, I have girl trouble."

"What eez eet?" Fleur said, tilting her head a bit.

"Well, I think that a girl at Hogwarts has a crush on me..." The inquisitive eyes of Fleur, Bill, and George drilled into Ron's head. "Luna..." he muttered.

"What the hell!" George yelled, bursting out into laughter. It was an awkward scene. George was rolling on the floor laughing, Ron was fuming, almost foaming at the mouth, and Bill and Fleur just looked around the room clueless.

"Who's Luna?" Bill said, face blank.

"She's a nutter." George said wiping tears of laughter from his eyes. "Completely-"

"She's not a nutter! She's...she's..." Ron started to cry. 'Why am I doing this?' he thought. 'Why am I crying? What's wrong with me?'

"Hey." Bill put a hand on Ron's shoulder, smiling. "When did it start?"

"It was last December...or November...I can't remember..."

--

It was winter. Christmas break was less than a month away. Ronald Weasley was walking out of Transfiguration, fuming at Hermione. 'Women!' he thought scornfully. 'They're so confusing!' He walked up a flight of stairs, rubbing his head. 'My god! Why'd she have to laugh at me?' He aimlessly wandered into the boy's bathroom. As he walked into a stall, shut the door, and started to unzip his fly, he sighed. "Stupid women." he muttered.

"I wouldn't be saying that if I were you." Ron spun around. Moaning Myrtle was sitting on the back of his toilet, looking at Ron. Her expression was mad, her lips were pursed, eyes were raging.

"D-Did you...you s-s-see-" Ron began, zipping up his fly at lightning fast speed.

"I had my eyes shut."

"This is a boy's bathroom Myrtle! Why are you here?"

"I got lost in the pipes. Some girl flushed me, and I ended up here. I wonder what she was thinking...it's not nice being flushed."

"Myrtle..." Ron said in what he hoped was a reassuring tone.

"You don't visit me anymore." Myrtle sniffed, eyes watering. "A few years ago, you used to visit me everyday."

"Erm, do you know who Hermione's taking to Slughorn's party?" Ron said, trying to change the subject.

"McLaggen." Myrtle said, giggling. She obviously loved gossip like this. "The best part it, Harry Potter's going out with Luna Lovegood!

--

"I just felt so...so..." Ron broke off.

"I know." Bill said smiling. "I know. I've had that feeling before."

"With who?" George said grinning.

"Fleur." Bill said simply. "You were my first love, don't you know?"

"Oh! I deed not know zat!" Fleur blushed. "Well you made a good choice!"

"I know I did." Bill said, grinning.

"But steell...Ronald een love. Oh, I feel so 'appy!" Fleur leant over and gave Ron a kiss on the cheek. Instantly, Ron turned beet red. 'Maybe she's not so bad...' he thought. "Won't Molly be proud! Oh, I can't wait to tell 'er!" Fleur skipped out happily.

"Damn Phlegm, come back!" Ron yelled, chasing after her.

--

Lavender Brown brushed out her long blonde hair. She wore a pink nightgown with frills around the collar. She sat in her, very girly, room plotting ways to get rid of Luna.

"The pink hurts my eyes." Her little sister, Minky walked into the room. Minky was just a nickname, derived from her real name, Madeline, and her kinky black hair, now pulled back into a loose low ponytail. Minky was two years younger than Lavender, but looked ten. "Why'd you make the curtains so bright?"

"Happy Christmas to you too." Lavender said, snidely. "Besides, your room in all it's blood red-ness makes me feel cramped." She narrowed her eyes. 'God, my sister is such a freak! So dark and...black.' She put down the brush. "Did you get what you wanted?"

"The System of a Down cd, a big bag of Chocolate Frogs, a copy of Care for your Magical Mutant Muggle Pet-" Minky had stopped counting on her fingers.

"Hang on. Have you been blaring Blisters All Around-

"System of a Down." Minky corrected. "It's an American band."

"Whatever. Do they sing that song that you've been blaring all morning? Something about Moses, parties and things flying from the tablecloth?" Lavender said, hopping on her bed. 'If so, I hate it.' she thought. 'So loud and noisy.'

"It's LIES from the table cloth, and yes they sing 'B.Y.O.B.' the song I've been blaring all morning."

"What's that mean?"

"Dunno." Minky hopped on a pink stool. "Bury Your Own Bunnies or something like that...did your beloved 'Won-Won' send you that?"Minky asked, pointing at the bag of Every Flavor Beans Lavender was eating.

"No, he sent me something more classy." Lavender said looking evilly at Minky.

"What is it?"

"Socks." Minky burst out laughing, and promptly fell off the stool. "Madeline..." Lavender said threateningly. 'Ooh, I'm gonna kill her! They're nice socks! Dark blue with little yellow stars! They're also toe socks!' Minky was still laughing. "Expelliarmus." As Minky was climbing back on the stool, she got blasted off by Lavender's spell.

"Dammit..." Minky muttered, standing up. "Anyhoo, how's your love life going?"

"I'm starting to think he's interested in another girl." Lavender said, spitting out a bean. It flew across the room. "Dirt." she muttered.

"Well just blackmail him!" Minky said, smiling. "Tell him that you know who the other girl is, or something like that. It'll be just like a crime show!"

"Maybe..." Lavender muttered.

"Or you can just confront him." Minky said, smiling. "Just say, 'you've been hanging out with Luna too much'."

"Yeah...how'd you know it was Luna?" Lavender said, shifting around a bit.

"They HAVE been together." Minky said point-blank. "A Hufflepuff can keep up with other houses's news."

"Yeah..." Popping another bean into her mouth, Lavender spit it out. It flew across the room, ricocheted off the closet mirror, bounced off the ceiling fan, and landed on the floor about halfway across the room near an oversized teddy bear bearing the headline 'HAPPY CHRISTMAS.'

"Damn..." Minky muttered, looking at the abandoned jelly bean.

"What? I hate sprouts!"