-Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling
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-Yeah so...this came to mind and seemed to fit in with the previously written Dance Among the Hedgerows. Not sure if I will add more content to this or not, I might if more inspiration comes. If I do it will be the same kind of thing.-Oneshot flashback-y kind of things!
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The Dance Among the Hedgerows:
Your Funny Valentine
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Luna Weasley sighed as she sat down in the Hogsmeade office of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. Her husband, George Weasley, had asked her to stop in and check on the mail as long as she was going to be in Hogsmeade delivering the childrens Valentines. It wasn't that she minded doing these little tasks, it was that she knew what would be coming through the door any minute now. Her fourteen year old daughter Callie, fresh off her break-up with her boyfriend of the past fourteen months Michael Frobrusher.
It wasn't as if this was the first time they had broken up. Nor was it probably the last. Callie and Michael had done it so often that they were experts on the act of breaking up and making up. The problem was, last year they hadn't done it on Valentines day and Callie was sure to be devastated.
Luna had barely began sifting through the mail when footsteps sounded on the stairs. Sure enough, Callie's tear streaked face appeared in the office door a moment later.
"Mum." she sniffled "Daddy owled and said you would be here."
Luna nodded and opened her arms. A moment later Callie fell into them, her thin body wracked with sobs.
"It's okay sweetheart." Luna soothed "You just let it out."
Callie nodded, her sobs filling the quiet office. Luna was thankful for the fact that unlike the Diagon Alley shop, this office was on the second floor. George had hired a manager to run the Hogsmeade shop when Lee Jordan had resigned to take the job as announcer for the British Quidditch League, and so they were afforded the privacy the situation called for.
"Oh mum...it was so...so horrible." Callie wailed into her mothers neck "Watching all those damned owls, and everyone else getting Valentines and flowers and candy."
"I know." Luna sighed as she rubbed her daughters back in gentle circles.
"And Michael came to Hogsmeade with someone else too." She said angrily "Marybeth Smithers! The biggest slut in school!"
"Callie!" Luna admonished
"Well she is!" Callie pulled away and flopped into a chair "Everyone knows it, including Michael. It's probably why he went with her, so he could get her to..."
"Callie Jo Weasley don't you dare finish that!" Luna pointed a finger at her youngest "That is not how your father and I raised you to speak of others."
Callie looked as if she wanted badly to argue, then she relented and sagged back in her chair. "Sorry mum. It's just..."
"I know." Luna gave Callie a sympathetic look "I know it hurts, but times of trouble test what kind of person we are inside. You don't want to be a bitter, hateful sort of person, do you?"
"No." Callie shook her head " I want to be happy, and good and kind, like you and Daddy."
Luna smiled and took her daughters hands in hers. "You already are sweetie"
"It's just that...it's so easy to forget sometimes." Callie said, a slight whine coming into her voice.
"I know honey." Luna gave her hands a squeeze before letting go. "And Valentines Day is one of the hardest days of the year to be alone and hurting. Trust me, I know."
"But...you have dad." Callie said, sounding shocked by her mothers admission.
"Oh Callie, I have him now sure. But you forget, your father and I didn't start dating until my first year of university." Luna sighed and then, she smiled softly.
"He danced with you at the Yule Ball." Callie grinned "When you sneaked down in your old pink bathrobe to watch. He told me so."
"Yes he did." Luna smiled again. "But after that we went our separate ways. He was so much older than I . It would have been a scandal, imagine...a sixth year and a third year! And your grandfather Xenophilius would never have allowed it, heavens, your father was sixteen, I was only thirteen!
"But he did smile when we saw each other in the hallways. Sometimes he opened doors for me, and if he caught someone being mean to me, he always stopped it. But, he and your Uncle Fred did those things for everybody. It didn't mean I was special.
Luna smiled, a dreamy look coming into her eyes. "It wasn't until over a year after the Yule Ball that your father took notice of me again...the year we were part of Dumbledores Army."
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-Flashback-
Luna couldn't remember ever feeling more depressed. It was the week before THAT DAY, the day she had come to hate more than any other.
Valentines Day.
It hadn't bothered her other years, but she had been younger then. She hadn't had that tiny taste of romance that she'd had the night she met George Weasley in the hedgerows the night of the Yule Ball.
She wasn't silly enough to actually think that someone like George Weasley could ever care about someone like her. She was far too different from the girls who flocked around him and his twin brother Fred. Far too funny looking with her huge owlish eyes and long wild hair, too funny thinking with her Crumple Horned Snorkacks and Nargles.
Luna Lovegood may be a dreamer, but she was practical, and practicality told her that boys like George Weasley did not like girls like Luna Lovegood.
End of Story.
Still, that didn't stop her from dreaming that there might be another boy, a boy who was more like her. A boy who might not think she was loony or funny looking. A boy who might like the way she laughed madly at silly things or how she could spend hours looking dreamily at the clouds trying to see pictures in them.
But after more than a year of hoping, her dream had not come true. She hadn't found that boy and now she had all but given up.
The problem was, Valentines day was coming and Luna remembered all too well the way she had felt the year before. The memory of George Weasley was still so fresh in her mind she could feel his hand in hers and the way the other held her close as they danced to the distant romantic music drifting into the hedgerows from the great hall.
Luna could remember it all too well, smothering in sadness as she watched the owls fly overhead. Some with flowers, some with red and pink envelopes bearing valentine cards or boxes of candy...all falling down around her...and not a single one bearing her name.
It was a horrible feeling, a feeling of loneliness, of unworthiness. A feeling of being unloved, and worse yet, being unlovable.
All around her couples made romantic plans... for it just so happened that the next Hogsmeade visit fell on that day. Luna was privy to every detail.. it was inescapable. In the loo, in the common room, in the great hall over dinner, before classes in the hallway, as they waited for classes to begin...it never ended and as February wore on, Luna became more and more depressed.
And then one morning the strangest thing happened. As she left the great hall she felt a hand on her elbow. When she turned around, she found herself face to face once again with none other than George Weasley.
"Hello." He smiled warmly.
"Hello." Luna looked at him, knowing her eyes had to be twice their normal size.
"Knock knock." He said, a grin on his face.
"Who's there?" Luna said, her face confused.
"Banana."
Luna looked at him like he was insane, yet she couldn't help but smile. "Banana who."
"Knock knock." He said, the grin on his face growing.
"Who's there?" Luna said,now grinning herself.
"Banana."
"Banana who."
"Knock knock."
"Who's there?" Luna wondered if she was the butt of some kind of joke.
"Orange."
"Orange who."
"Orange you glad I didn't say Banana?" He smiled and then leaned over and whispered in her ear. "A joke a day keeps the sadness in your eyes away."
He winked at her, and then, he was gone.
Every morning for the week leading up to Valentines Day, George stopped her as she left the great hall. Every morning her told her a corny joke, winked at her, and left her smiling.
"Why did the radish kiss the banana?" he asked as he broke routine and stopped her before she went into the great hall Valentines Day morning.
"I don't know." She said with a big smile. "Why did the radish kiss the Banana?"
"Because it had appeal." He grinned and then bent over and kissed her cheek. "Get it, a peel?"
He winked and turned into the great hall, leaving Luna flabbergasted, staring at the now closed door with her hand on her cheek.
Ginny Weasley wiggled her shoulder as she passed, a big smile on her face. "Wake up Luna, you're blocking the door."
"Sorry." Luna smiled sheepishly and pulled open the door. She glanced over at the Gryffindor table, sure she would see George laughing at her foolishness with his brother and friends, instead he smiled and nodded slightly. Luna smiled a little in response and then took a seat at the Ravenclaw table.
She was halfway into her bacon and eggs when the owls converged. She'd been dreading this moment all week, the moment of feeling sad, of feeling lonely and unloved. Yet someone had cared about her this week, had been her friend. She looked over at the Gryffindor table again, but George was gone now. Probably off to spend Valentines Day with someone special.
Luna signed and turned back to her breakfast as an owl swooped low over her head, and then to her shock dropped a pink carnation and a red envelope onto her plate.
She picked up the carnation and smelled it...she had always loved the smell of carnations. Then, turned to the envelope. She tore the end open and pulled out a card with a puppy on the front that said "Be Mine Valentine!"
She smiled and opened it.
If you fancy spending the day together, I'll be waiting by the fountain-
--Your funny Valentine
Luna smiled, her heart thumping in her chest.
Maybe Valentines Day wasn't so bad after all.
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-End Flashback-
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"Oh mum!" Callie sighed sadly "Why can't Michael be more like Daddy?!"
"Oh sweetie, your father has his faults too." Luna smiled "It did take him another four years to figure out he was in love with me after all."
Callie laughed and leaned forward and hugged her mother.
"Callie!" The teenage George Weasley burst into the office, his face red and annoyed."Michael is downstairs looking for you."
Callie straightened, a look of shocked joy on her face. "He is?" Her look changed to contemplation. Perhaps Michael needed to learn a lesson before she forgave him. "Oh real-ly, and what does he want?" She said, her voice now dripping with attitude.
"Would you go and talk to him so he leaves me and Trisha the hell alone? He's been dogging us since we left school trying to get me to get you to talk to him!"
"Maybe I don't want to see him." she huffed, Marybeth Smithers still forefront in her mind.
"Oh no you don't!" George yelled and took Callie's arm. "I'm not having my and Trisha's Valentines day ruined because YOU want to play drama queen!"
"Mum!" Callie yelled as her brother dragged her towards the door.
"Do as your brother says Callie." Luna leveled her daughter with a look "It's Valentines Day...don't ruin it for yourself by being stubborn."
Callie took a deep breath. "Fine, I'll go." She jerked her arm out of her brothers hand "But I'll take myself thanks!"
Luna grinned to herself as she watched Callie's bright red curly ponytail disappear through the door. It was bound to be a tough road for Michael Frobrusher, but, by the end of the day she would be holed up at Madam Puddifoots, unlike Luna who had ended up outside Zonko's watching George, Fred and Lee Jordan blow up everything they could get their hands on.
Luna sighed and turned back to the mail. Third from the top was a small red envelope. She tore it open and pulled out the small card with the picture of a puppy, underneath it said "Be Mine Valentine"
It was the very same Valentine she had received from George every year since the first.
She sighed happily as she flipped it open.
I'll be waiting at our house- -meet me there if you fancy dinner and an entire day of intense snogging...and more.
- - Your Funny Valentine
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Luna smiled and reached for her coat, her heart thumping in her chest just as hard as it had all those Valentines Day's ago.
Dinner...snogging...and more...
She could hardly wait...oh how she loved Valentines Day!
How could she have ever hated it?
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