October 2002

It was a Sunday early October when Ron officially moved back into the Burrow. It wasn't guilt or need that brought him back. It was an odd sense of duty mixed with the simple fact that he had no clue what he was doing with his life. The aurors had seemed like a good idea, especially at a point where he had something to prove. But rounding up Death Eaters and dark wizard wannabes eventually became both monotonous and stressful, and he yearned for something else. Something...simpler? But not simpler.

By 22, Ron knew his strengths. He could strategize well. He was an above-average dueller. But he still didn't know how to translate those skills into a career. So when George and Angelina asked him to help out at the shop, he jumped at the chance. It's temporary, he told himself, but it got him out of the house, earning money, and kept him in contact with the rest of the wizarding world.

As he unpacked into his childhood room amongst the dusty Cannons posters, he mused over his new life. This is not where he saw himself, and the prospect of sharing a house with his parents was both comforting and stifling all at once.

"Ronald Weasley," an ethereal voice pulled him from his thoughts and Ron fumbled for his wand.

Luna stood at the door to his room, wearing a gauzy blue skirt with an orange jumper, her long blonde hair shining in the dim light. The butterbeer bottlecap necklace was back, but she stood with confidence and authority. "I heard you were quite a good auror...how is it that I manage to make you jump so easily?"

Ron paused, taking her in. "Well, I'm retired now. And I'm also in my own bedroom, where other people generally don't sneak up on me."

She stared hard at him.

"And there's a squeaky step that usually warns me that people are coming."

She continued staring.

"And my parents are both in the garden." Ron was running out of things to say, and she was just staring at him, as if he were the one who made no sense.

"And I wasn't expecting visitors?" he finished.

"Unexpected visitors are those we need to be most prepared for." Luna responded, gazing around his room. "I've been eating dinner with your parents every Sunday for weeks. Percy and his wife have come every week. And your other siblings come often. Even Hermione and Andromeda. But not Charlie. Or you."

Her direct eye contact unnerved Ron a bit and she stared at him, as if there were an expected response. It wasn't a glare, it wasn't aggressive. It was simply calm expectation.

"Well, like I said in my letters, I had to pack up my old flat and wrap up my auror business. Find a sublettor. And Charlie has his dragons..." Ron felt as if he were taking his O.W.L.s, unsure if his answers were correct.

"I've noticed that you often feel you must justify yourself." Luna paused, casually removing some dust with her wand. "Your mum wanted me to tell you to come down because everyone will be here soon."

And with that, Luna breezed soundlessly down the stairs, Ron on her heels. As they sat through dinner that night, he tried to puzzle out the sense of warm relief he'd felt when Luna stood in his doorway.

Halloween was one of the few holidays that didn't produce a Weasley party. On this particular Halloween, Ron and George held the shop open until almost nightfall, selling tricks and treats alike. After dinner and a quick change of clothes, Ron flooed over to Harry and Ginny's. Already, Harry and Hermione sat in the living room, Hermione talking earnestly about the logistics of new werewolf legislation. Harry nodded along, looking as if he'd rather be talking Quidditch. Or watching paint dry.

"Where's Ginny?" asked Ron, looking around the room.

"Oh, she's upstairs getting ready. The Leaky OK tonight? Hannah's stuck behind the bar, and Neville doesn't want to leave her," Harry explained.

"Neville meeting us here or there?" Ron wondered. Neville had spent a year with the aurors, but left to take on a herbology apprentiship, so they didn't see him much.

"He's meeting us there. Try not to make a mess of this evening," replied Hermione looking stern. Ron enjoyed testing new products on Neville. Mostly because it drove Hermione and Hannah mad.

"Only if you promise not to read a book or bring up new legislation," said Ron with a grin.

Hermione huffed in reply, but stuffed her book back into her bag.

"Well, I invited Seamus," continued Harry, who partnered with their school chum now that Ron was out of the auror corps.

"And Luna's coming, too," added Ginny, coming down the stairs to hug her brother. "It's too bad Dean's still at muggle University, I know she'd love to see him. It was rough on her when they broke up."

"Broke up?" interrupted Ron, suddenly curious. He hadn't known Dean and Luna had dated.

Hermione responded, exasperated "yes, they dated our last year at Hogwarts. Ron, I'm sure we've talked about this. You need to work on paying attention –"

Just then the fireplace glowed green and Seamus tumbled out, stumbling over the rug. Hugs and handshakes were shared all around.

"So who else is coming?" asked Seamus.

"We're just waiting on Luna. Neville's meeting us there," replied Harry.

Seamus wagged his eyebrows. "Dean said she was pretty good shag, who gets to lay claim to her tonight?"

"Really, Seamus?" Ginny didn't look too amused. "She's my friend, not a piece of meat."

"And she's a Ravenclaw, and you know how Ron is, so Seamus probably gets first dibs," said Harry with a grin. He was promptly slapped on the back of the head by Ginny, and everyone chuckled.

This was the moment the fireplace glowed green again, and Luna floated out.

"Oh, is something funny? I'd love to know!" she said as soon as she saw that everyone (even Hermione) was suppressing a giggle.

"We were just talking about how Ron only hooks up with Hufflepuffs," covered Harry.

"Twice. TWICE." Ron was red-faced.

Luna stared at him questioningly. "I never took you for a person who put so much weight on Hogwarts houses."

"I don't!" muttered Ron, glaring at Harry and Seamus, who continued to guffaw.

"Well, he ran out of Gryffindors..." started Seamus, "since the ones in Ginny's year won't go near him and the ones in the year above are scared of him because of the twins –"

"I'm obligated to say 'you're welcome' from George," interjected Ginny.

"—And he dated 2 of the 3 in our year, and Parvati won't go near him because of Lavender. Then there's the Slytherins. I mean, he'd have a decent shot with Millicent, but Ron's decided to be picky-"

Ron threw a stinging hex his way, but Ginny snatched his wand from his hand. "I'm fully enjoying this. Seamus, please continue."

"Well, and he learned his lesson about Ravenclaws. Not that he had a chance anyway, since Padma has heard all kinds of stories from Parvati. I know Hermione was in Griffyndor, but she taught him pretty quickly that smart girls aren't his thing-"

"I'm sitting right here. Really, Seamus." Hermione looked as if she was going to start hexing next.

"—so that leaves Hufflepuff. But after the great Susan Bones incident of 2001, I'm not sure any of them would have him. Hannah has threatened to hex off his—"

"Buggar, Seamus, you make one bad date sound like I insulted the entire house," Ron shot back.

Seamus reminded him, "well, you did tell Susan you were very impressed that she passed the Healer Exams 'even though she was a Hufflepuff.'"

"It was supposed to be a compliment."

"Ron, 75% of Mediwitches were Hufflepuffs," Hermione interjected.

"I know that NOW."

Ginny, Harry and Seamus's eyes held twinkles of merriment. Luna simply looked confused. "Ronald, I thought Seamus was your friend."

"He is, Luna. It's a joke. He's taking the mickey."

"Okay." She still looked concerned. "So if Ron only dates Hufflepuffs, who does Seamus date?"

"Anything that moves," threw in Ginny.

Luna still had an innocent, slightly muddled look on her face. "And what about Hermione? Who does she date?"

Hermione looked up, unperturbed. "Whoever I please, Luna."

"Ravenclaws," muttered Harry.

She shot him a dirty look. "You haven't even met Bran yet. For good reasons."

"He's an Unspeakable," responded Harry.

"Ravenclaw," said Ginny, pretending to mask it with a sneeze.

"He and I don't even talk about Hogwart's houses. It's quite refreshing," responded Hermione.

"What do you talk about?" asked Ginny.

"Theories of time travel and –"

"Definitely a Ravenclaw," interrupted Seamus. "Can we go yet?"

Everyone shuffled toward the pot of floo powder until Hermione interrupted. "Luna, you're not wearing shoes. You have to wear shoes to a pub." At Hermione's words, Ron looked over to Luna. She was, of course, barefoot.

She stared absentmindedly at her feet, then flicked her wand, conjuring a pair of sandals.

"Ooh, cute shoes!" said Ginny.

"Did you just conjure those silently?!" said Hermione.

"I'd really like to get started on the drinking," said Seamus, already throwing floo powder.

And so the group flooed to the Leaky Cauldron, still teasing one another, and met up with Neville and Hannah. Hermione and Luna sat at the bar with Hannah and Ginny, catching up on Luna's travels and Hogwarts gossip. And Harry, Ron, Neville and Seamus spent the night getting completely plastered on Firewhiskey and muggle vodka. Ron and Seamus (well, mostly Seamus) hit on every witch in the pub, then all four sloppily stumbled to the street, and eventually wandered around Diagon Alley catching up.

Ron had lost track of time. He knew it was the middle of the night. Knew vaguely that they were in Diagon Alley. Kind of knew that what he was wondering was wholly inappropriate.

But he asked anyway. It had been in the back of his mind all evening. He'd never thought of Luna as anything more than Ginny's dotty friend who had an odd affinity for Harry. He'd never thought of her as a girl, let alone a girl who went out with one of his mates from school. So naturally, he had to know.

"So, Dean and Luna?" he asked, but he was so drunk it came out like, "o, Deeeeeeen 'n loooonnn?"

"They dated." Seamus tended to hold his liquor better than Ron or Neville, but he'd had quite a bit more. "And it took them months to finally get down to it!" Seamus laughed loudly and threw an arm around Neville. "Ya heard th'stories, right? Good shag, that one."

"Oi, Seamus," Neville attempted to steer him around a sewer grate, but instead the pair wandered precariously close to the edge of the sidewalk. "D'you have to be so crass?"

Seamus actually did tend to be crass most of the time. It had only gotten worse the longer he was an auror, and he was usually the one to start the dirty jokes and lewd comments while they were on assignment.

"Why, you fancy her or somethin', Ron?" Neville teased. Then he stumbled and pitched off the curb. He tended to return to his younger, more clumsy self when sloshed. He gingerly climbed back onto the pavement.

"She's my sister's friend! Of course not-" Ron's protests were cut off when he nearly followed Neville off the curb.

"Didn't stop your sister from marrying your best mate." Seamus had a point.

Harry was quiet and observant after a few rounds of Firewhiskey. But at this point he piped up, "well, Ron's been owling Luna almost daily since she got back! I was wondering what that was about...he keeps saying something about her owl feeling poorly about himself, but now I wonder..."

"I don't fancy her! I was just wondering what the story was." Ron stumbled again and leaned against the window of Ollivander's.

Seamus leaned heavily on Neville and guestured with his bottle, "Dean and Luna went to Hogsmeade a bunch, Luna lived in the Griffindor dorms for awhile, and it still took Thomas months to close the deal. Don't know what they talked about, don't care. She's barmy."

Neville started puking in the gutter.

Just then, Ginny, Hannah, Luna and Hermione appeared in the alley.

Hannah sighed and took Neville's arm. "Really? You blokes are going to leave me with this?"

"Would you rather be left with these three?" asked Ginny, guesturing to Ron, Seamus and Harry. Harry was leaning on a wall, nearly asleep.

"You lot are getting nothing but pumpkin juice next time you come by." And with a stern look (and giggles from Hermione and Ginny), Hannah began leading Neville back toward her flat above the Leaky. She shouted over her shoulder, "don't let them floo drunk! You heard what happened to Cormac!"

Ginny sighed and slung Harry's arm over her shoulder. "I'll meet you at Grimmauld. Bill hasn't been by to key Luna into the apparition wards, so she'll have to go with Hermione or Ron. Seamus lost his apparation privileges –"

"I told you, I thought you were still out with the Harpies! I didn't know you were there!" Seamus protested loudly.

"So the wanker will also have to side-along with one of you." And Ginny turned on the spot, taking Harry back home.

Luna and Hermione stared at Seamus and Ron. Luna looked mildly curious and a bit amused. She fidgeted with the ends of her hair and stared at Ron. Hermione's expression was somewhere between annoyance and amusement.

Hermione finally spoke, "I'm assuming neither of you can apparate in your state, can you?"

Both boys lowered their eyes and shook their heads.

"So we're stuck side-alonging the two of you. Or we could just leave you in muggle London to experience the full consequences of your actions." A smile twitched at the corner of her mouth.

"Hermione..." Ron whined.

"Oh, you're not my responsibility. In fact, Luna's the one you have to convince. Of course, she could always just apparate you home and let your mum know what you've been up to." Hermione had a wicked grin on her face. She was enjoying this.

Ron stuck his tongue out at her. It was nice to have their friendship back.

Luna stared at him again. "No, I'll bring Ronald with."

"Which means Hermione has to take me," said Seamus, with a waggle of his eyebrows. Ron could feel Hermione's annoyance. It amused him when her plans backfired.

"Fine, but we're going now." Hermione gingerly took Seamus's arm, slapped his hand away from her waist, and diapparated.

"Shall we?" asked Luna. Ron offered her his arm, but instead, she wrapped both her arms around his waist and put her head on his chest. Her hair smelled like citrus and the outdoors. She turned them both on the spot.

When they landed on the steps of Grimmauld place, Ginny was leaning against the wall, fighting off a fit of giggles at Ron's face. He was sure he looked equal parts horrified, confused and, well, inebriated. He quickly stepped back from Luna's embrace.

"You didn't warn him about how Luna side-alongs, did you?" Ginny asked with a mischievous smile.

Hermione returned the grin. "Nope, I figured he deserved the confusion."

Luna gave Ron a shy smile. "I just find it easier to hold on that way. I'm sorry if it confused you, Ronald."

Ginny and Hermione continued to chuckle. Ron was torn between the urge to hex them (was he even sober enough for a stinging hex? Only one way to find out...) and fall down on the couch to sleep. He chose the couch.