A/N So this chapter is more random than the others, mainly because its about Christmas Day and I'm writing this in July! But it is Luna so I have an excuse!

Chapter Eight

Luna Lovegood was humming tunelessly to herself. She wasn't the sort of person to get impatient but she hasd been standing still as a statue, no wait, still as a muggle statue. Luna grinned as she remembered the 'statues' in the garden of Harry's cottage. They'd spent an entire afternoon chasing them around the house. Harry had adamantly declared that he hadn't known about them before he had moved in, but Luna knew that he'd just wanted the company. She found the statues rather charming to be honest. She stared at the darkness around her and counted to sixty in French to try and distract herself from the irritating itching in her right foot. It was then when Luna wondered if there was enough oxygen to last her however long it would take the others to get out of bed, it was very warm and she could feel her cheeks tinging pink as the air became stuffy. She really hoped that there wasn't a paraquatic leghorn drifting around, that would explain the itching as well as the heat. Luna's ears pricked up as she heard a group of people niosily enter the room, it sounded like three or four people chattering at once, but she knew it was them once another person entered the room and the others all gasped and spoke compliments which Luna could finally make out,

"Wow Gin, you look amazing!" being the basis of all of them.

"Never mind me, its present time!" was the response and Luna felt her palms turn sweaty as she knew they would all be looking at her,

"What the bloody hell is that?", that he would be looking at her. It was crazy really, she was covered in a brown paper shield and Harry, her substitute brother and Chosen One extraordinaire had assured her that she and Ron were meant to be.

She heard a rip and all thoughts left her mind except for him, and the fact that she was going to see his face for the first time in days. Those days had felt like a lifetime. The last layer of paper fell to the floor and she beamed as an equally huge grin spread across Ronald's face. She stepped away from the huge pile of brown paper on the floor, not a bit disappointed that the result of the gruelling task of wrapping herself up at two o'clock in the morning had been torn away in a few seconds.

She gazed into Ronald's eyes adoringly, watching his brain trying to take everything in and say or do something, anything. She saw his eyes flicker all over her attire and she checked her left shoulder where his glaze had lingered to find a bent, slightly dishevelled angel wing.

"Oh, I so wanted this to be perfect." she sighed, becoming the tiniest bit nervous that Harry, Hermione and Ginny had been wrong in their assumptions and advice.

"It is perfect." Ronald croaked out, his throat had become very dry it seemed. He reached out for her hand and kissed her smooth, creamy skin. Her eyes widened as he fumbled in his pocket, pulled out a ring and placed it on her finger clumsily. She hadn't even thought about him getting her anything! The miniature dragon that now resided on the middle finger of her right hand roared quietly and snorted fire that was a swirly mixture of shocking pink and pure white.

"It's beautiful." she whispered

"Just like you." he replied before pulling her into his arms and kissing her deeply. The world stopped and they held each other for what seemed like an eternity.

"Get a room guys!" Ginny startled them out of their dream world. Luna had forgotten the others were in the room.

"You can talk! I'm still having nightmares about the last time I opened a broom cupboard!" Harry reminded her. General commotion ensued as Ginny jumped at Harry in rage and Hermione desperately tried to break up the 'playful' fight.

Ronald kissed Luna on the cheek and breathed in her scent which reminded him of all the times they'd spent together.

"I love you Luna." he said, his words couldn't have been more true.

"I love you too Ronald." tears of happiness rolled freely down her cheeks and she laughed, overwhelmed at all the emotions she was feeling at once. He wrapped his arms around her and counted the brightest blond strands in her hair. She gazed up at him and counted the freckles on his nose. She smiled blissfully, knowing that they'd done this countless times.

"I miss the radishes." he noted the crystals in her earlobes.

"Ginny said they ruined the look, she's a lot better at these things than I am." Luna replied.

"Not a chance." her boyfriend squeezed her hand. "Merry Christmas"

"Same to you." with a kiss.

"Same to us all!" said Harry who had become rather 'merry' after opening a bottle of Leprechaun Larger at an unusually early time in the afternoon. Hermione had charmed her music player to blast out both muggle and wizarding songs but couldn't seem to get it to stop insulting the worst dancers.

"Well, that's George for you." she gave up and wandered back into her dormitory presumingly to write to her boyfriend who couldn't be there.

"May I have this dance?" Ronald was bowing jokily.

"Why of course." they danced together for four songs before joining Ginny and Harry who were playing what looked like 'Spot the Slytherin'.

"I can see two younger ones over there in that corner, but there's quite a lot of Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws mingled everywhere." Luna told them as she took a seat next to Harry and Ronald. Ignoring their bewildered looks and awkward silence which quite often followed whatever Luna said, she tried to continue the conversation but was interrupted as Ronald remembered that she hadn't explained anything.

"So hang on, where've you been the past few days?"

"At Harry's obviously."

"Harry's?!" Ronald turned to look at his best friend.

"Erm…yeh. Think I might have a bit of explaining to do." Harry nodded over to an empty corner of the Common Room and Ronald walked over with him, thoroughly confused.

"That is a very pretty dress Ginny." Luna complimented her friend.

"Thanks, bet you can't guess who its from!" Ginny joked.

Luna studied the flowing silver and green of the dress.

"Its from Draco Malfoy isn't it?" Luna said plainly.

"Yep, he's meeting me here in a bit!" Ginny grinned widely at the prospect.

"This shared Common Room idea was quite a good one wasn't it?" Luna commented, glad she wouldn't be stuck with those incomprehensive Ravenclaws in her year all Christmas.

"Oh, there he is!" Ginny exclaimed and jumped out of her seat.

"You'll be ok on your own for a bit won't you?" Ginny checked and bounded across to meet Draco once Luna had nodded. She had something to do anyway. She got up and quietly made her way to the door. She took one last look at her beloved Ronald, hoping that he would react as she had expected to what Harry was telling him. The bewildered look on his face told Luna that he had reached Stage One - bewilderment.

Content that Stage Three - blaming her, would be well and truly over with by the time she got back, she slipped away quietly and hummed to herself, creating a melody to accompany the rhythm of her footsteps on the marble floor of the room she had walked across so many times. Once the song had finished she clung to the balcony and took a long deep breath of refreshing air. Her fingers ran along the smooth stone, remembering every curve and scanning the landscape as if making sure of something. Satisfied, she pulled out her wand and murmured a few words to match the swishing of the willow. A pure white dove fluttered into her hand. Professor Flitwick had been so proud of her when she had perfected that charm in third year and she had thought of his delight of each and every time she had performed it since. Of course she thought about someone else as well. Someone else who had always been proud of her.

It was a scene of serenity as the angel with a broken wing whispered everything her father would have wanted to hear to a dove that stayed peaceful in her palms, each warming the other. A few tender moments of silence followed her words before she gazed at the dove soaring up towards the clouds. She stood, breathing slowly in and out, in and out, savouring the blissfully calm emptiness of the moment, ghosts of tears still haunting her eyes overridden by a brilliant mind focused on happiness to come.

An unsure clearing of the throat in the room behind her startled Luna out of her peaceful state. She spun around, disillusioned to the fact that this was her place, and only hers, before breathing a sigh of relief at the figure stood awkwardly in the middle of the room,

"You found me." the only three words that had decided to drift into her mind which was numb with ecstasy just caused by his presence.

"I always will." he assured her before joining her on the balcony and pressing his lips against hers.

"Merry Christmas Luna."

"Merry Christmas Ronald."

A/N So this is technically the last chapter but I'm going to stick another one on the end to round it all off, don't read it if you don't want to see everyone all coupled up! I just want to thank everyone who read this and reviewed, it meant a lot to me! Hope you enjoyed it !