Hogwarts (Challenges and Assignments).

Assignment 6 — Media Studies — task 9 — write about being in love with a co-worker

A/N: I'm sorry. This is terrible, and I apologize in advance for it. I took the task over for a friend and had to rush to get it in. Kindly do not review because I know nothing good will come of this.

"Ginny. Ginny. Ginny!"

The redhead being addressed snapped her head towards her friend. "Merlin, Hermione, I'm sorry! I completely zoned out."

Hermione laughed. "'Zoned out?' Is that what we're calling 'ogling' nowadays?"

Bright red, Ginny retorted, "I wasn't ogling?" Her statement came out as a question, and she flushed even redder.

The two women were on their lunch break, but had decided, for simplicity's and saving time's sake, to just eat in the Ministry cafeteria. That had been their mistake. Ginny picked at her meal, pushing her rice from side to side of her plate, and watched Luna Lovegood enter the room, order, sit down, wait for her food to go, and leave.

Hermione sighed. "Ginny, ask her out already. You've been dancing around one another for, what, a month now? Just invite her to get a coffee or something!"

"But —" protested Ginny. "I mean, what if she refuses? I'd look like a fool!"

Hermione slid a comforting arm around her friend's shoulders. "I happen to know for a fact that she likes you just as much as you like her."

"How?" the ginger demanded.

"Pansy," she shrugged. Pansy Parkinson worked as her secretary. They got along much better after the war; Hermione found that she and the Slytherin alumni had much more in common than she ever would have guessed, and they often went out for drinks with Ginny. "Luna spilled to Pansy, who confided in me. Now all we have to do is have you ask her out."

Ginny Weasley wasn't used to being in love. She had crushed on several people, boys and girls alike, during her Hogwarts years, but she'd never actually got close enough to them to fall for them.

But Luna Lovegood was a totally different case. Ginny had watched the blonde girl for months. Luna had transferred in from another department, and Ginny paid attention to every little thing she did. She was obsessed.

She knew that Luna lived mostly in her own world. She wasn't crazy; she just wanted a different reality. She knew that Luna's mother had died from an experiment when Luna was just a little girl. She knew that Luna preferred coffee to tea, and no sugar or milk. She knew that Luna wore blue most of the time, but liked black more. She knew that, no matter who it was, Luna would always be there for someone.

And Ginny loved her for it.

"Would you like to — um, I mean, want to — I mean, would you do me the — ugh, no. Ginevra, just get it over with!" Ginny wrung her hands. She was standing outside Luna's office with a single forget-me-not flower — Luna's favorite flower, from what she had observed. Observed, not stalked. No. She didn't stalk.

She knocked.

Luna opened the door and smiled genially. "Hello, Ginny. What can I do for you today?"

Ginny opened her mouth and realized that she had absolutely no idea what she was going to say or how she was going to say it. Best to just get it over with. "Want to grab a coffee?"

The blonde looked bemused. "It's nearly seven in the evening, Ginny. If I drink coffee at this time, I'll be up all night."

Ginny cursed herself. "Erm, maybe a drink, then?" She crossed her fingers behind her back.

Luna's face spread into a grin. "I'd love to."

That one drink was the beginning of an entirely new age for the two women. They went out a couple times on casual dates before Ginny finally worked up the nerve to kiss Luna. Thankfully, the kiss was reciprocated, and they decided to tell their friends.

Their friends already knew, and congratulated them on their relationship.

They never got married because of a stupid Ministry law that didn't allow women to wed, but they remained a happy couple until they died, surrounded by their grandnieces and grandnephews, the children of their friends.

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