Without further ado, I present 'Sunshine the Pygmy Puff (Part 3)'. Brace yourselves, it's going to be a wild ride.
As Ginny sat mournfully eating a slice of toast, Colin looked at her from over the top of the book he was reading.
'You're being ridiculous', he said, 'but I feel sorry for you. I'll help you write an apology note to Luna if it feels too strange to speak to her in person, we can drop it off this afternoon.'
It was mid-morning in the Gryffindor common room, and Ginny and Colin had a free period. Ginny had decided to devote it to first sighing miserably, dropping toast crumbs on her books, and then proceeding to recount the terrible events that had happened this morning in between crying and loud nose blowing, honking at a tissue while her friend attempted to study. Colin looked exhausted.
'But she was meant to follow me! She was meant to follow me to somewhere that wasn't the bleachers so we could apologise to each other and then kiss and make up!'
'Yes,' said Colin dryly, 'how strange that she would become upset and leave when you turned around on your broom without any explanation after storming out of the Great Hall.' He raised his eyebrows at her with an expression that managed to be simultaneously condescending and frustrated. Colin could be very antagonistic, thought Ginny. No one ever suspected because he was so small and blonde, but beneath that irritating-yet-sweet exterior lay a sharp tongue. He should come with a warming, she brooded.
Ginny sighed, finished off the toast and then put her head in her hands. Everything had gone to shit and, even worse, it was her fault. She had pissed off her friends, annoyed Arnold by forgetting to clean out his cage in the chaos of the past few days and hurt Luna.
'Urgh', she wailed. 'Everything is so rubbish'. She reached out and blew her nose on the edge of her sleeve (she had run out of tissues) while Colin looked on, appalled. Ginny sniffled, and folded over the snotty end so it was hidden by the cuff.
'God, you really have reached rock bottom' he said in a hushed voice. With a sudden expression of fierce determination, he snapped shut his book and pulled Ginny out of her chair by her wrist, on the other side to the sleeve she had just used as a hanky. 'Ginny', he said. 'We are going to get back your girl'.
/
Luna sat in the Ravenclaw common room, stroking Sunshine unhappily. She missed Ginny; stroking the pygmy puff the redhead had given her was the closest she could get to the real thing right now. She was dreading her Defence against the Dark Arts class this afternoon, where the Ravenclaws and Gryffindors were taught together. The entire thing would be so tense and awkward, it would completely ruin her favourite subject. At least, she thought gloomily, Sunshine liked her new hat. Luna looked down at the notes she was meant to be revising for Herbology, blanched at the thick pages of text she had to get through, and decided to take a break. Maybe she could walk down to the greenhouses, get a bit of practical revision done instead. Working with plants always calmed her down and besides, it gave her something to do all morning. Usually she would spend it with Ginny – she quickly banished this thought.
It wasn't fair, she thought as she walked down the stairs. Ginny always got to be the immature one, the one who Luna patched up and forgave. She shouldn't always have to take on the role of being kind and understanding and mature: she wanted to sulk a little too. She walked moodily across the field toward the greenhouses, fingering her radish earrings, trying to cast the thoughts of the redhead from her mind. She would do it: she wouldn't give any more thoughts or time to the girl unless Ginny apologised. She was strong and capable: why should it bother her that her girlfriend was being immature and horrible? She would stand firm in her resolve, she would be calm, cool and collected.
'Ah, Luna!' said Professor Sprout as she opened the glass door. 'Come for a bit of out-of-class work, just what I like to see. How are you, dear?'
She burst into tears.
Professor Sprout really was a lovely teacher, Luna reflected as the woman poured them both a cup of tea. They were sat in her office, which was situated as an attachment to one of the greenhouses. It was cluttered in a very cosy way with thick tomes on plant life, bags of compost, student papers that needed grading and, unsurprisingly, a large number of houseplants. As Luna sniffed unhappily into her mug, Professor Sprout nodded thoughtfully and began watering the flowers.
'Sounds like you've both gotten mixed up in a right tiff', she said, 'but it will come right in the end. Ginny's such a headstrong girl, so impulsive and hot headed. Mark my words, as soon as she flew off on that broom she'll have started to be sorry. She'll just be too proud to apologise.'
Luna scowled at the tea in her cup. 'This is what frustrates me! Why do I always have to be the mature one?'
Professor Sprout sighed and patted her consolingly on the shoulder.
'You're right, that's not fair', she said. 'But Ginny may surprise you. She cares about you a lot, and although she's proud she knows when she's in the wrong.' Lost in her musings, she stared at one of her houseplants for a while, then moved to add some more compost to the pot. 'More tea?', she asked. Sunshine, awoken from her nap in Luna's pocket, squeaked and took a slurp from her mug.
/
'Look', said Colin. 'It's easy. You just have to give her this letter at the end of Herbology. She knows you aren't good with words'- at this, he looked at Ginny pointedly- 'and she'll really appreciate the effort.'
Ginny stared anxiously at the envelope in her hands. Inspired by Ginny's poetic confession to Harry in her first year, Colin had helped her devise a two-page long poem apologising and then inviting Luna to the Owlery after dinner, where Ginny hoped to finally smooth things over with her girlfriend.
'Thanks for helping me Colin', she said. 'It's just- don't you think the lines 'I'm sorry I sulked and ran away from you/ that Pygmy Puff's got me feeling so blue' are a bit too on the nose?'
'You're welcome, and no', said Colin. 'Those are the best lines; very poignant, Luna will love them'. He looked at her knowingly. 'Remember, I went to muggle primary school, we had English lessons there, we even did a poetry module and everything.'
'You were ten', Ginny reminded him. Colin scowled and began to pack his books into his bag, annoyed.
'Just give it to her', he said.
/
Oh God, thought Ginny as she lined up for her DADA lesson that afternoon, clutching the note in a sweaty hand. This is it.
She stared at Luna, who was pointedly not looking at her, instead gazing at the latest issue of The Quibbler and biting her nails distractedly. They sat next to each other for the entirety of class (Ginny was grateful that they had fixed seating, it meant Luna couldn't move away from her), Luna refusing to catch her eye. Luna being angry at her was worse than Ginny could have ever imagined, it was like her girlfriend had put some enormous ice wall up between the two of them. At the end of the lesson, Ginny cleared her thought awkwardly.
'Uh', she said. 'I wrote you this -thing-'. Usually she was excellent at speaking. Ginny wasn't sure why her tongue had suddenly glued to the top of her mouth. Stiffly, she thrust the letter toward Luna, who took it coolly, still not looking at her. Sunshine peeked out over the top of Luna's pocket and gave her a superior look, which Ginny thought was quite an impressive feat for a rodent. Arnold, she reflected, never looked at her like that: Arnold was just a big ball of fluff who shuffled around happily in his cage. Sunshine should get off her high horse, she thought.
Ginny was brought back to the present by Luna, who was speaking.
'I'll read it this evening. I don't think I'll have time to look at it today, I'm very busy writing an article on the weetimorousbeastie for daddy. Good day'. With that, she packed up her bag, adjusted her radish earrings (which complimented her gold hair beautifully) and left the room. Ginny began to feel hopeful. She knew that expression on Luna's face; it meant the girl was desperately excited about something but trying to hide it. Luna would read her letter soon, Ginny was sure of it, and then things would be alright. Speaking of things being alright, she still had work to do.
'Colin', she said. Colin looked at her from across the room, a determined look in his eye. 'Colin', Ginny said, 'Time for phase two'.
/
Sunshine watched as Luna opened the letter from her girlfriend and suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. It wasn't that she disliked Ginny, it was just that she thought Luna could do better. Sunshine had had some very illuminating discussions with Arnold whilst at the Weasley house: Arnold had told her that whilst Ginny was a kind owner, he couldn't remember the last time she had fed him anything but carrot sticks (compared to the three course meals Luna regularly prepared Sunshine.) Ginny hadn't even bothered to make Arnold a hat for the summer, or knit him some tiny rodent mittens and a scarf for when it got colder (as Luna was currently working on). To put it simply, Ginny was subpar.
Oh for God's sake, thought Sunshine as Luna delightedly read her the poem the redhead had written her, that girl can't even use grammar correctly. Everyone knows it's 'you and I', not 'you and me'. To show her distaste, Sunshine began to run furiously on her rodent-running-machine, which Luna had recently set up in her cage right next to Sunshine's tanning bed. Luna, however, got the wrong end of the stick.
'I knew you'd be excited too, Sunshine! This is just so romantic.' Well, thought Sunshine grudgingly. I suppose Ginny makes her happy, that's something.
Ginny smiled at Colin as they made the final touches to their plan in the Owlery, and then covered it with a towel, so it would be a surprise for Luna.
'Thanks Colin', she said. Colin looked pleased.
'Well', he said, 'I am an excellent friend.'
'Yes, you are', Ginny agreed, 'but you have to go now as she'll be here any moment!' She pushed a slightly irritated looking Colin out the door, then smiled happily and looked around the Owlery. She had to confess, it wasn't the most romantic spot to apologise to Luna in- all the owls were just beginning to wake up for their evening hunt and were hooting loudly, pooing in their owl boxes, flying around and generally being pests, but it was the place that worked best; she planned to surprise Luna with it quite soon. Quiet footsteps up the stairs. Ginny jumped, straightened up and faced the door as it creaked open.
'Hi, Luna', she said.
/
After Ginny's apology (she really did apologise beautifully, and had also worn the hat Luna had made her), Luna was feeling quite cheerful and relieved. Finally the whole debacle was over. Ginny was holding her hand, the owls were hooting musically, the sun was shining.
'I have something to show you', Ginny said smoothly, stroking her hair. Luna smiled and allowed herself to be led over to where a large cubic object was being covered by a towel. The redhead removed it with a flourish.
'Ginny', said Luna. 'That's a cage. It's a cage with a… village in it?'
Luna stared at it. The cage was about 2m by 2m, and apart from its vast size, it was pretty ordinary. The inside, however, was very amazing and bizarre in equal measure. There were shops, inns and even streets, all carefully made out of wood, with tiny signs and cobblestones and everything. As she looked closer, Luna saw a small lake, with minute golden fish swimming inside it. There were small, pygmy-puff sized rowing boats floating on top.
'I had some help from Professor Sprout, and she also got McGonagall to give me a hand', Ginny was saying excitedly. 'I've spoken to other people with pygmy puffs, and they're down for the idea too.'
'Ginny', Luna asked, 'what idea exactly? And what is this, what's going on? This is amazing but I'm so confused'.
Ginny looked at her, surprised, then laughed. 'Sorry, I just got excited! I forgot you're new to this idea, I've been working on it for the past 3 days. I've been really missing you'- here, she guiltily eyed Sunshine, who was peeking at her out of Luna's pocket- 'and I've been behaving like a shit.'
'Because you were jealous of Sunshine. A pygmy puff', Luna reminded her.
'Anyway', said Ginny quickly, 'I realize that when I bought her for you, I placed this massive responsibility on your shoulders to look after her. And the way you've been treating Sunshine so well, it made me rethink how I take care of Arnold. I've realised I'm a bit neglectful of him'.
Ginny gestured to the cage. Inside was a building labelled 'dormitory', and Luna peeked through the window to see Arnold, sleeping blissfully on a straw bed with a tiny nightcap on his head.
'As you can see, I've put him in here and he's much happier already. I spoke to some other students who have pygmy puffs this afternoon and they also feel guilty about the treatment of theirs after seeing how well you look after Sunshine. The plan is that they'll move their puffs into this cage too, and they can all live together in a little commune. That way we can all share responsibility of looking after them so the work will be less, but the pygmy puffs will have a better quality of life. I was wondering whether Sunshine would like to move in with them?'
/
Sunshine tapped down the shiny cobblestones of Puff Alley, feeling pleased. She had just bought a new hat for 2 almonds made by Mittens, a neon orange pygmy puff who had excellent textiles skills. He had taken over the shop that Ginny had titled Haberdashery, and he now kept it regularly stocked with materials he spun himself. All the pygmy puffs worked together in social bliss: it was the start of a brand new age. Sunshine had taken on the role of town mayor. It was a tough job but someone had to do it, communicating with the owls, trying to negotiate a new train station through the owlery with the humans (which was difficult when they couldn't understand your squeaks so you were forced to use crude hand gestures.)
She watched as Ginny and Luna came to replenish their food stock, chatting contentedly. Sunshine supposed Ginny was alright really: her plan was genius, and she made Luna so happy. And it was true, that the plan had worked. The pygmy puffs lives were much better, and the human's workload had gone right down. As all the puffs worked together to clean the cage and they had a lake and well for water, all they needed to do was give them food (and a train station, but Sunshine was still trying to negotiate that).
Sunshine sighed contentedly. All was well.
Sorry for the long wait for Part 3, I went on a beekeeping course so couldn't write! I hope you all enjoyed 'Sunshine the Pygmy Puff', I certainly enjoyed writing it. Please rate and review, your feedback is really appreciated.