Luna stared at the brunette in disbelief.
'How did you even get into my room?', she asked incredulously, staring at Hermione who was lying on her bed, a smug expression on her face. 'You know what, don't worry. I don't think I have time to hear!' A sensation of panic was beginning to bubble up in her stomach as she glanced at her watch. 'I have about 10 minutes before I need to be outside'.
She began to pace up and down her room, staring anxiously around, desperate for something. She wondered whether she should just come clean to Ginny about the whole awful mess, but the thought of the picnic her girlfriend had packed and the excited look on her face, and breaking the news that she hadn't even remembered made her feel slightly nauseous. Hermione watched her, relaxed, munching on a chocolate frog.
'You ought to just tell her you forgot' she said lazily, now examining the card she had got (Newt Scamander) and gazing calmly into Luna's eyes. Luna, despite her pacifist inclinations felt herself drawn to punching the girl.
'Look', said Luna, 'I can't really do that, can I? Have you seen the amount of work she put in?' She was now searching frantically through her pile of crochet, to see if there were any finished hats or scarves she could present to Ginny. Damn, they were all only half done. Luna cursed herself for her inability to finish any crochet projects, then turned desperately to her bookshelves. Suddenly, as she was examining her book on nargle mating habits as a potential present candidate she was struck by a thought. 'Hermione, how did you know I forgot?'
Hermione looked shifty and pretended to read her chocolate frog card in intricate detail. 'Well, I saw all the work that Ginny did. And I might have watched you guys tonight- not in a creepy way', she added hastily, 'I just wanted to see how it was going.' With this caveat, she seemed to regain her confidence. 'And it was clear to me from the moment you came outside that you had no idea it was even your anniversary!' There was a distinct air of triumph in her voice. Luna recalled the unpleasant sensation she had had that evening of the back of her neck prickling as though eyes were boring holes into the back of her skull. There was something strange going on with Hermione and Ginny; she would have to deal with it later. At the moment, she just needed to focus on the one thing: her girlfriend and their anniversary.
She took one more glance around the room and, with an air of resignation, decided. 'There's nothing for it,' she said, 'I'm going to have to tell her I forgot. I can't give her an anniversary present which is just some of my old stuff, she deserves more than this.'
/
Ginny lay on the picnic blanket, contentedly listening to the gentle hooting of the owls as they circled the sky. The moon was full, enormous in the endless black sky so crammed with stars they hurt her eyes, the night pleasantly cool on her skin. It was almost as though time was on pause, the peaceful quiet enveloping her as she waited for her girlfriend to return.
As she rested, the sudden thought stuck her that perhaps she and Luna could go out to Hogsmeade tomorrow, as a further anniversary treat, provided she didn't have anything like Quidditch practice the next day. She didn't think she had, but it was always better to check. Sitting up, she cast Lumos and found her bag, inside which was her engagements diary. Ron always took the piss of her for having an engagements diary, but she found it useful, and besides, she liked the look of it, the neat efficiency of it. It made her feel organised, mature. Eagerly, she flipped through the book until she found the next day.
Hmmm, that was odd. She could have sworn that she had written ANNIVERSARY in bold across that entire week, but there was nothing. Ginny flipped the page to the next week, and with a growing sensation of horror she saw the familiar large, curling letters splashed across the days. Oh shit, she thought. I've got the fucking date wrong.
No wonder Luna had been acting so strangely all night! She must have been shocked that Ginny could have gotten the dates so wrong but been too polite to say and now must think that Ginny was the worst girlfriend in the world! Desperately, she wondered whether she could pass the mistake off as something intentional, a kind of warm up to their actual anniversary, a practice round of some sort, then instantly dismissed the idea. She sat up, the feeling of anxiety that had begun to pool in her stomach now creeping up her body, making her lightheaded. Oh, and she had put so much work in, she had been so excited, only to get the date wrong by a whole week. The entire picnic now seemed ridiculous, pointless; Ginny longed to get rid of the whole thing, to bury herself in bed with her teddy and not come out for at least three days. Oh no, there was Luna, Ginny could see her blonde hair shining in the dark as she walked towards her. Ginny swallowed. Luna was bound to have noticed the date mix up. She would have to come clean, to apologise.
/
As Luna walked towards the redhead, who was sat up clutching her engagements diary (pink, adorned with pompoms and with a fluffy cover) she felt worse than ever. Better to get it done with quickly, to rip the plaster off as soon as possible.
'Ginny, I need to tell you someth-'
'Luna, I got the date wrong! I just realised, I'm so sorry!'
Luna stopped, momentarily stunned and confused. A complete 180 had occurred: she was no longer the confessor but the confessee and she needed a moment to compute this new information. 'Um, what?' she managed to croak out once her vocal cords had begun working again.
Ginny looked near tears. 'I've ruined it, haven't I?' she said unhappily, looking so miserable Luna's heart gave a painful twang. 'Our anniversary. I wanted it to be so special and I went and ruined it.' Luna hastily sat down next to her and put an arm round her, worried her girlfriend might begin to cry in earnest.
'You haven't ruined it at all', she said earnestly. 'I've had the loveliest evening with you imaginable. It's me who ruined it', she added guiltily. She looked away from Ginny, unable to say the truth as she looked into her eyes. 'At least you remembered our anniversary and prepared such a lovely picnic and presents. Ginny, I completely forgot about it. I'm so sorry.'
They were both silent for a while, staring at the full night sky, Luna with her arm still around her girlfriend. Then Ginny began to laugh. She had a fantastic laugh, more of a cackle, which never failed to set Luna off too. It was as though an invisible tension had broken, the sense of anxiety that had been weighing on Luna all evening evaporating in an instant.
'We are, without doubt, the worst girlfriends in the world', Ginny said, resting her head on Luna's shoulder.
'Completely and utterly crap', she agreed.. They spent the rest of the night finishing off the picnic, walking round the lake, and at intervals laughing again at their 'anniversary'. Luna didn't open Ginny's presents, choosing instead to open them on the actual date (she was planning on taking Ginny on a romantic rowing boat excursion on the lake and cooking a three course meal for them.) All in all, it was a fantastic night.
/
At breakfast the next morning, Luna watched from across the hall as Ginny excitedly recalled the events of the night before to Hermione, complete with hand gestures. Although the redhead looked exhausted just as Luna herself must, she still managed to relate the events with so much force that the brunette looked slightly shell-shocked, a feat which impressed Luna greatly.
The blonde waited, munching on her eggs on toast until Ginny had left. She watched Hermione pull out an enormous book, then walked across the room to sit next to her.
'Good morning', said Hermione stiffly, pretending to read her book. It was filled with tiny letters which crammed themselves into the pages: it didn't look pleasant to read.
'Hello', Luna replied in her dreamiest voice, the one she knew would piss off Hermione the most. 'Isn't it wonderful how well everything worked out?'
'Not really', said Hermione. 'You just got lucky, that's all.'
The problem was, Luna reflected, Hermione did have a fair point. While Ginny had completely forgiven her on the grounds that she herself had gotten the date wrong, Luna still felt a pang of guilt at the amount of time Ginny had spent preparing for the anniversary, while Luna hadn't even realised it was coming up that month. It wasn't as though she could yell at Hermione for being right.
'I agree', she said, pouring herself a glass of pumpkin juice.
'Really?', asked Hermione, shocked.
'Yes, I haven't been a very good girlfriend at all.'
Hermione looked mollified, all the fire gone out of her. That was the good thing about arguments, Luna reflected. If you agreed with the person, they were usually so shocked they lost their ability to retort. Luna took the chance to speak during Hermione's silence.
'However, what's going on between you and Ginny? Why did you watch us last night?' Luna peered at her over the top of her glass of pumpkin juice. 'Because that was really creepy.'
Hermione had the grace to at least look abashed: she blew on her coffee in the ensuing awkward silence, the sound very loud.
Luna stared at her and raised a pale eyebrow. 'Don't do it again' she said, the menace in her usually calm and happy voice eerily frightening.
Hermione gulped. 'I won't', she said.
Hope you guys enjoyed the second and final part of 'The Anniversary'! Please rate and review as this is my lifeblood. Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed my work, I read all of them. I can't reply to the guest ones (FanFiction won't let me, I'm not sure why) but I really appreciate them.