Posy in his Pocket
Flying High
"Tea and Toads, Harry."
"What?"
"That's what I'm reading. It's quite pleasant. I find it quite delightful that toads drink tea, even through I don't think they have the right fingers for it, or any fingers. Did you ever see Trevor drink tea?"
"You read?" Well, duh, Harry, chimed in his ever helpful brain as Luna gave him a puzzled look. Of course she reads... This is Luna after all.
"Yes. I find it quite simulating as well as educating. You had to read in Hogwarts. Harry, do you know how to read? Because if you don't, I'm sure I can teach you how... It's not that hard."
Choking back a ball of hysteria that had got stuck in his throat, Harry smiled weakly and groaned out, "Eh... yeah, I know how to read."
She nods, and looks at her book. "I am pleased," she smiles and puts a swirling bookmark between the pages.
"So..." Harry murmured awkwardly, "How 'bout some flying?"
Luna stood straighter and smiled. "I've been looking forward to this all week Harry," she said shyly, but was staring directly into Harry's eyes.
"Um... I hope that you like it then. I don't know if I'll be a good teacher but - " Harry was interrupted for a harsh shaking of Luna's head.
With her radish earrings just a blur, Luna yelled, "Don't be a Kumptfer! It's very bad for the system, you don't want to be going to the toilet in the middle of our lesson do you?"
Harry shook his head numbly, not daring to ask what she was talking about.
"Good!" She nodded her head and smiled brightly, looking at the broom in his hands. "Now let's, er, fly!"
"Well," Luna murmured, before flopping down beside Harry where he was sitting, "That was amusing. I think I like flying, and Harry..."
"You've certainly improved from your first lesson." Harry said, trying to ignore the implications of what she had just said. She liked him? Did she? After that? His mind whirred as it tried to answer all the questions he couldn't stop wondering.
It had been two weeks ago that Luna had started flying and since then she had started to be tiring on Harry's heart. She loved to go flying without any hands and sometimes she would try and smuggle some quills and parchment up so she could draw. Harry had so far succeeded in keeping her safe, but Luna was developing some cunning tricks.
"Have you ever flown naked? I think I would like to try... But splinters," she shuddered, "I wouldn't want to have to explain that!"
At that moment Harry was bombarded with images of Luna naked, on a broom, on his broom. He groaned as Luna regarding him with a teasing smile.
"Maybe," he whispered, "You could be almost naked, or maybe, you could have an invisible cloak. I don't want everyone to see me naked."
Giggling Luna, rolls back and waves her hands in the air. "Everything seems so close, even the sun, even the stars, but really, they're so far away."
It's dawn, it's France and Harry's cold. The Alps are prominent and they are both flying slowly near the magical community of Le Village de Neige de la Merveille.
The lights below are multi coloured and bright in the new day, those houses that are awake. Luna is laughing in the wind and Harry can't help but join in.
He is surprised when he swoops low, her broom buckling beneath her and she is thrown onto the snow. Harry descends height quickly but hovers when she stands up and walks over to her broom. She is covered in snow but from where he is flying, he can see the smile of his face.
Suddenly, she had rocketed up to where he is flying. Her eyes are bright and her tangled hair is windswept and speckled with snow.
Harry feels a warmth, even in the cold dawn, spread from his heart to his toes. With a look of concentration on her face, Luna edges closer to him, the wand quivering beneath her finger tips.
"Oh, Harry," she calls out, her voice a shock admist the sounds of the birds beginning to wake, "Come here, the broom doesn't want to go any closer."
With a smile of his face, he flies to where she is, only a short distance away. Her lips are chapped and her darkened eyes bring a further blush to his face.
She's smiling, as he flies past her. Then Luna grabs the sleeve of his robe and brings him into her personal space, never that personal to a person like Luna. "Harry, thank you," she whispers, bringing her lips to his.
The touch of her lips brings a warmth centred on where she is touching him. The sudden ball of snow on his messy head, is a surprise but he doesn't back down from the kiss.
When he does, he gasps out, "You rascal! You dumped snow on me!"
Her laugh is high pitched as she clutches the broomstick and giggles. "I couldn't help myself. You look like a fairy!" She snorts and her broomstick spins before she regains control. Her hands are covered with snow, and if she was not wearing pink wool mittens, they would have surely be falling off or at least frozen. The fingers are pointing are Harry in glee, as she laughs her heart out.
"Fairies are stupid," Harry heard himself say and her laughter increases in strength, "Luna!" Flying low, he scoops up some snow, far more successful on staying in the air than Luna.
Snow is brought with a twist of revenge into her face, and the laughter stops. "Harry Potter!" She yelps, "I'll get you for this!" A air of determination, a scary thing in Luna Lovegood, flashed across her face before she flies down and gathers more snow into her arms. "Ha!"
Above her, Harry flies this way and that, ducking as she pelts handfuls of snow at the elusive former Seeker. A smile can't leave his lips even when a stray snowball hits his ear.
"I think I've done quite well, thanks to you," Luna says, in her sitting room. Her cheeks are still flushed from the cold weather and her lips are chapped. Harry thinks she still looks beautiful.
"No problem, what are friends for?" He says casually, as she sips her warm lemonade. She had offered some, but he had settled for hot chocolate.
"Friends... That's what we are, aren't we, Harry? Just friends, always friends," her brow is creased with a frown as her tone starts to roughen. "That's all we will ever be, won't be Harry? 'Cause that what you settled for."
She stops speaking at looks sadly at her tall glass. "I am sorry, but unless you start showing affection, I don't think I can start seeing you again, Harry. I'm not a Grizzlenesti, nor can I let you run over my feelings and not care! I'm human and I do feel, I feel as much as anyone else."
"Luna..."
"Yes? If you say it, say it. If you don't please leave."
