Disbelieving in Trees
Potter47
Chapter Seven
The Big Day
Luna walked down the hotel corridor of the Hotel Corridor, and then walked back up it the other way. She was pacing, pacing, pacing so much that if she were wearing sandpaper on her socks, she would have been in the basement by now. Of course, there was no very good reason why she would have been wearing sandpaper on her socks, as that would be a very silly thing to do, indeed.
She needed a new plan, and she needed it quickly. Today was the day--the very last day she had, to prevent this awful monstrosity from becoming a reality. Luna shivered at the thought--what a sad place reality would be, then, if it did.
Luna was alone, now, unfortunately enough--she had been banned from the wedding ceremony, after yesterday's incident, and so she did not even have Severus, who was busy downstairs, helping with the preparations. The wedding would begin at six o'clock, on the nose, down by the gazebo--it was four, now.
Two hours.
Oh dear, thought Luna.
Walking, walking, back and forth, forth and back, and Luna was starting to get a headache, from all the thinking of plans she was failing to do. Her heart was beating, beating, beating faster than she could ever remember it beating, beating with each footstep she took on the corridor's carpet, that carpet which was somehow hard and soft at the same; hoft, her father would say.
She was getting slightly dizzy. More than slightly, now--the corridor was beginning to turn, turn, turn, and Luna had to sit down or she would have fallen over. And so she did--she sat, with her back against the wall, with only discarded breakfast trays to keep her company, and once the maid came round, even they would be gone...
Luna rubbed her eyes, and as much as she knew that she needed to stay focused, and think of a plan, her mind began to wander from her, to slip away from her slowly and stealthily, and she began to daydream.
She was standing in the car park of the hotel, standing beneath the lamp post, the light shining down like some sort of personal sun, just for her. But then it wasn't just for her at all, because he was there, Ronald was there, standing with her, and holding her hand.
"It's OK," he was saying. "Everything's going to be OK."
And he smiled, and she smiled because of course she had to smile if he was smiling at her, like that--how on earth could she not?
"I love you," she said, the words flowing so very naturally from her lips. He tightened his grip upon her hand, and nodded, and smiled some more, and said, "I know. I love you too," and Luna melted.
The melted Luna began to ooze her way down the car park, drawing farther and farther away from Ronald with each passing moment. Finally, she reached a drain, and seeped (sopped?) her way through its grate, falling, falling, falling--
...and landing, in a large cauldron-full of bubbling liquid, in a dungeon beneath the pavement. Severus and Hermione were stirring her together, seemingly unaware that she had become an added ingredient. She hoped she did not mess up their potion--they seemed so perfectly wonderful, working together on it. Hermione was smiling like Luna had never seen her smile before, and Severus was not frowning.
She watched them, for a few minutes, but then the oddest sensation passed throughout her goo, and she had the strangest feeling that she was boiling. Sure enough, in another minute, she felt herself drifting heavenward, back through the grate from which she had entered the dungeon, and back into the car park of the Hotel Corridor.
Luna rather enjoyed not having a body, for once--there was nothing to get in the way, anymore, she could finally just be herself. And, if she really concentrated, she found she could direct her vapor in whichever direction she wanted to go, which was quite nifty.
She concentrated, and began drifting towards the entrance to the hotel.
Once in the lobby, she saw Ginny standing behind the front desk, holding a microphone. She was making an announcement, loud and clear, that could be heard throughout the hotel:
"I'm delighted to inform all of you," said Ginny, "that the Granger-Weasley wedding that was to be held today, at six o'clock, on the nose, down by the gazebo, has been cancelled at the last minute." She paused, shuffling a few papers in front of her, and then continued: "Now, you are all cordially invited to attend the Lovegood-Weasley wedding, now scheduled to take place at the gazebo instead, which promises to be a much more enjoyable affair..."
Luna almost smiled, but then she remembered that she was a mass of floating particles, so she didn't.
She decided to drift towards the corridor where she had been pacing, and to her surprise, she saw that Ronald was there as well, crouched over someone who was slumped on the floor...
Oh! thought Luna, quite surprised to see that the slumped-over person was herself.
"Luna!" said Ronald, poking her shoulder. "Luna, are you OK...?"
The non-melted Luna opened her eyes with a start--she blinked a few times before she had quite realized that Ronald was really standing over her, poking her shoulder.
"Hello," she said, quirking her head to the side. "What are you doing here, Ronald?"
"Thank God, you're OK..." said Ronald, who then plopped himself down on the floor beside her and took a few deep breaths. "I just... I saw you on the floor like that, and I nearly had a heart attack..."
"Yes, I'm all right, I suppose," said Luna, nodding.
They were silent for a few minutes--Luna noticed that Ronald was all dressed up, which did not suit him at all. The only thing that seemed to be missing was his tie.
Ronald followed her gaze, and then said "Oh, yeah!" quite suddenly, pulling a length of cloth from his pocket--Luna recognized it as his bowtie. "I... that's why I was coming to find you, I wanted to ask if you'd..."
He gestured rather emptily with the tie.
"...if I'd tie your bowtie?" finished Luna, and Ronald nodded limply.
"Yeah," he said.
"Of course I will," said Luna, and her voice shook slightly as she said it. She grabbed the tie from him, and made as though to stand up, but wobbled severely as she did so--she would have fallen over again, if Ronald hadn't caught her about the waist, nearly sending her back to the drain.
"You're sure you're OK?" asked Ronald, once she'd righted herself.
Luna didn't answer, and merely grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the door of room number twenty-one. She pulled the key-card-thingy from her pocket, and slid it into the door, and then pulled it back out again.
"...you reckon we still need the mirror?" asked Ronald.
"Yes," said Luna, nodding, as she opened the door and led him to the bathroom. "This is your last chance to learn, after all--I doubt Hermione will be eager to teach you."
There was no anger in her voice as she said it--it was just a fact, and Ron didn't respond. Luna began to fuss about his neck with the tie.
"Watch closely," she said. "First, you..."
He did watch closely--his gaze was focused intently on their reflection in the mirror, the entire time Luna was fastening his tie.
"...there," said Luna, finally. "All finished."
She pulled back from his neck, expecting him to say something--"Thanks, Luna," perhaps, or "Oh, OK." But he was silent--he just kept looking into the mirror as though it was the most fascinating thing in the world. But then, no--he did not look fascinated. He looked quite emotionless, actually.
She watched his reflection, too, wondering what was wrong--she remained silent, however. She knew he would speak when he was ready--there was no sense to nag him, of course.
Finally, he did speak:
"Damn," he said.
"What?" said Luna.
"Damn," he repeated. Luna smiled slightly.
"I heard you," she said, patiently. "I was just wondering what you were damning."
"Oh," said Ron. "I... I was just looking at us. In the mirror."
Luna nodded--she'd already known this much.
He continued, as she'd known he would: "...when the hell did we get so old?"
"I don't know," said Luna. "I think it was a sort of gradual process, but yes, it does seem to have snuck up on us, now, doesn't it?"
Ron nodded. He still hadn't looked away from the reflection. Then:
"When I was a kid," he said, "in first year, at Hogwarts, there was this mirror. It showed you what you wanted most, you know, and when I looked into it, I saw me being head boy, and Quidditch captain, and I was... I was old. I remember thinking how old I looked, and how weird that seemed, you know? But that was nothing compared to... to this..."
He reached up and rubbed his cheek, stretching his skin this way and that, and then he let it go. It returned to just the way it had been before.
They were silent for another long moment, and then he said, a bit louder than Luna'd expected:
"I'm getting married, Luna."
Luna said nothing.
"I'm getting married... how ludicrous is that? I mean, when I looked into that mirror, you know, I never saw myself getting married, I never really thought about getting married, I never wanted to get married all that particularly. But... here I am."
Luna said nothing.
He laughed, suddenly, a strange laugh that didn't seem to have very much humor in it.
"Remember when we were kids, Luna? Me, and you, and Ginny, you guys used to make me play house and Ginny was the kid and you were the mum and I was the dad?"
Luna nodded--of course she remembered that.
"I hated that," said Ron. "It was so embarrassing, you know? I didn't want to get married, I told myself I'd never get married, I'd grow up and be a Quidditch player and live by myself my whole life. But that didn't happen, did it?"
Luna said nothing.
"I mean, what am I? I'm not really old, yet. Do you ever... d'you ever feel trapped, Luna? Like you're stuck in something and you can't think of a way out?"
Luna nodded.
"Yeah... me too," said Ron, which was perfectly obvious, as he'd been the one to mention it. "I don't even know what I feel trapped by..."
I do, thought Luna.
"I just... I feel like life's happening to me, you know, it's just happening and I'm watching it happen and it's all going like everybody's always told me it should go. But shouldn't I be the one that decides that?"
And now, Luna said something.
"Of course you should, Ronald." He looked up in surprise, like he'd almost forgotten she was there, and finally, he was looking at her, and not at the mirror. "And... would you let me say something, and promise me you won't get angry at me? That you'll just hear me out and not walk out?"
"Yeah," said Ron, looking somewhat confused. "Of course."
"That's just what I was telling you the other day, Ronald, when I said that Hermione was too old for you."
Ron tensed, but didn't get angry.
"I heard what happened last night," he said, instead. "At the... the hen party..." He trailed off, for a minute. "I'm sorry she went crazy on you. You can come, if you want. I mean... you don't have to be banned. I reckon she's not about to let you be a bridesmaid anymore, but... anyway..."
"Thank you," said Luna, almost taken aback by this.
Ron nodded, glancing back at the mirror for a moment. "I'd better be going, I guess," he said. "Thank you... for the tie, I mean."
Luna smiled. "You're welcome, Ronald."
"I'll see you, then. Six o'clock--"
"...by the gazebo," finished Luna. He started to walk towards the door, but she grabbed his hand--he looked round, caught off guard, and she squeezed his fingers.
"Good luck," she said, and he smiled slightly, too.
——
The gazebo was covered in flowers, when Luna arrived, covered in simply loads of flowers that seemed to dance in the late afternoon sun. It was a beautiful place for a wedding, and Luna remembered her daydream with a pang. This could have been her wedding... if only she hadn't woken up.
There were dozens of white wooden folding chairs lined up in front of the gazebo steps, set up with an aisle running down the middle. Luna took a seat near the back, so as to be a bit inconspicuous--she already looked peculiar enough, as she was dressed as a bridesmaid yet sitting by herself.
She sat in silence for a while, watching as the other seats slowly were filled to capacity with onlookers, both wizard and Muggle. Luna wondered idly which of the Muggles were Hermione's parents, before remembering that she didn't really care very much.
There was a deep voice beside her, then, causing her to jump slightly in her chair:
"Is this seat taken?"
Luna looked up to see Severus, gesturing to the chair beside her. She shook her head, and he sat down.
"Wonderful," he said, scanning the crowd, rather than looking at her. "If I had been forced to endure this whole thing sitting beside Albus, I may have had to send him off of a tower when we returned to Hogwarts."
They sat in what could almost be called a companionable silence for awhile, but then, it seemed, Severus could not take it anymore.
"So?" he asked. "What have you planned?"
Luna shook her head. "Nothing," she said.
His eyes widened, and Luna liked to think he nearly fell off of his chair, because the thought of Severus Snape falling off of a dainty-looking white folding chair into the grass below was a rather cheerful one. He would have looked so silly.
"Nothing at all?" hissed Snape, keeping his voice deliberately low. "You haven't managed to come up with a single idea...?"
"Nope," said Luna.
"What about all you said about never giving up, and all of that rubbish?"
Luna looked slightly affronted. "I did not say I had given up, I merely said I didn't have a plan."
Severus blinked, and stared at her for a long minute. Then, his mouth quirked up in a sort of smirk.
"I see," he said. "Improvisation, then."
Luna nodded. "And if nothing strikes me by the time they get to 'speak now or forever hold your peace,' I believe I'll just start a ruckus of some sort, or maybe just run up there and start snogging Ronald's face off."
"I believe that would be considered starting a ruckus," said Severus.
Luna shrugged, and they fell silent, for the last of the stragglers were filing into the last of the empty seats, and a minister of some sort had just appeared on the steps of the gazebo.
"I believe he stole your robes," whispered Luna to Severus. "Look at the collar."
"Very funny," murmured Severus, hardly laughing.
Ron was standing, bow-tied and awkward-looking, at the foot of the steps, with Harry standing beside him. Ginny was on the other side of the steps, looking very pregnant yet very pretty in her matron-of-honour dress.
Dum-dum-de-dum... dum-dum-de-dum...
The entire crowd turned around in their chairs to see Hermione, holding a bouquet and wearing a long wedding dress, begin to walk down the aisle on the arm of a Muggle whom Luna assumed was her father. For a split second, Luna wished that she had taken an aisle seat, so that she could reach her leg out and trip her, or step on the long trailing part of her dress, but childish the urge passed, however unwilling it was to go.
When Hermione had reached the foot of the steps, the minister took a deep breath, and so did Luna. This was it...
The minister welcomed the crowd, and began talking and talking and talking about everything marriage involved, and Luna was having a hard time paying attention. She was much more interested in the look of utter dread that Ron was trying to hide from his face, and wondering why he was trying to hide it.
Then, the minister seemed to be finished with what he was saying, and he gestured for Ronald to take Hermione's hand. He did so, after hurriedly wiping it off on his clothes, and the minister smiled.
"Do you, Ronald Bilius Weasley, take Hermione Jane Granger, to be your--"
"OH!"
Luna blinked, and sat up in her chair, alert. The minister seemed to be blinking very rapidly as well, and he was looking fervently throughout the crowd to see who had been so rude as to interrupt him. The crowd, however, was too busy looking at Ginny to pay him any mind, for she had just collapsed upon the floor, her legs having given out beneath her.
Oh, dear...
Harry was at her side in a flash, nearly tripping on Hermione's gown in his effort.
"Are you OK--?" he began.
"Of course I'm not bloody OK, idiot!" shouted Ginny from the grass, sending the minister's eyebrows flying. "My bloody water just broke...!"
TBC