Chapter 6 – A First Date
The following Monday, Luna floo'd to the Burrow shortly before eight in the morning and dropped the boys off. She talked to Molly briefly, although the woman who had raised six sons really didn't need any instructions. She did listen and nod reassuringly as Luna detailed everything she thought Molly needed to know. Then Molly gently nudged her out the door and Luna apparated to the Ministry.
Luna reported to Evan when she arrived, who took her around for introductions and a brief tour. When they reached Hermione's office, everyone was surprised when the assistant director came out of her office to greet the new research assistant. Luna then spent the rest of the day familiarizing herself with the department archives and organizing her thoughts of how she wanted to start. The department essentially had a large, partially catalogued stack of files, documents, testimonials, and memory reports that had been roughly compiled and needed to be systematically reviewed, organized, and verified. It would be the work of several lifetimes, but by Tuesday Luna had decided to start with files from two hundred years previous to the present. From there, she organized the information by continent and country with a cross reference to creature type. With this system in place, a researcher could implement the finding spell she put in place and search for all reptiloids, all reptiloids within Asia, or all creatures within Asia or China. By the end of Thursday, after three days on the job, Evan stopped by and was quite pleased with the progress and her system. Luna enjoyed the work and found many of the records fascinating, although she still appreciated her days with her boys. When she would pick them up from the Burrow, Molly was always in good spirits and had fallen completely in love with the boys. When she arrived to pick them up on Thursday, she found that Arthur had arrived home early and was sitting on the floor building elaborate, magically reinforced block towers with Fred, Lorry, and Sander.
On Thursday evening, Luna had just gotten the boys to sleep when the floo alarm sounded. Going to check, she found George's head in the fireplace, smiling at her.
"Good evening Luna. How did your first week go?"
"It went well. There's enough work for a lifetime, but it's fascinating."
"Excellent. I was calling to check on what your schedule is for the weekend? There's a muggle carnival I'm taking Fred to. Ginny is watching Roxy, as she's a bit young to appreciate it. I thought your boys might enjoy it, if you want to join us? Saturday at ten?"
"Hmm, that sounds interesting George. I think the boys would like that. So, ten on Saturday, where should we meet you?"
"How about I pop over to your flat and then apparate us to neighborhood? I've checked it out and there's an alley that's perfect."
"Alright, I'll see you then. Thanks George."
George's head left the fireplace and Luna turned back to finish her nightly cleanup of the flat. It was really kind of George to think about the boys.
Saturday arrived and Luna had the boys ready when George and Fred arrived. They all dressed fully muggle and George looked the part in a pair of tight jeans and a blue button down with a leather jacket. He had grown a light beard and Luna found herself admiring, then she shook herself and wondered what was wrong with her. They were friends, and anyway, Rolf had only been gone not quite a year. George seemed excited for the day and grinned broadly at her. Luna would have been surprised to know that the smile was partly due to how nice she looked in her shocking pink leggings with pink and orange floral blouse. The look would have been garish on anyone else, but it fit Luna well. After taking a moment to admire, George apparated them across the city and they headed out to enjoy the carnival.
The three boys were thrilled at the sights, sounds and smells that assailed them as they made a loop around the carnival, deciding where to start first. When all three of them squealed at one ride, George and Luna laughed. The ride the boys were enthralled by was a circular rotation of six cartoonish dragons. Both of them tried not to laugh as they thought about how far from reality the dragons were. George bought tickets, waving Luna off, and they loaded the three boys together into one of the dragon cars. The ride was a toddler level ride and didn't do much more than go in a circle and move up and down about three feet, but the boys screamed in delight until the ride stopped. Then they screamed when they had to get off. They were only pacified when they moved onto a carousel and Luna and George climbed on to ride with them. After a few more rides, they played a couple of games and George was pleasantly surprised to find that Luna had excellent aim. He gave a couple of tries, but Luna was the one to win three small stuffed monkeys for each of the boys.
With the games done, the boys were starting to get fussy and hungry and they decided on a round of hot dogs and chips. Luna insisted on paying, since George had paid for the rides, and they found a patch of grass to settle on while they ate. After the hot dogs, the boys were completely smeared in ketchup and Luna wished she could cast a cleaning spell, but resorted to muggle methods as both boys squirmed to get away from their mother and her wet napkin. George finished cleaning Fred and saw Lorry was trying to crawl away as Luna cleaned Sander. With a laugh, George grabbed the escaping boy in his free arm, while he held Fred in the other arm. Luna looked up and saw George, head down and blowing raspberries at two laughing boys, and her heart skipped a beat.
After lunch, they stopped to watch a clown who made balloon animals for each of the boys and then decided that the boys were ready for naps. As they made their way through the crowds to the alley to apparate, George noticed a preppy looking young man who was eyeing Luna with open appreciation. Something in George flared as he reached and took her by the elbow to guide her away. Luna was a bit puzzled as she looked over at George. Then she looked beyond him and saw the man staring at her. Something in her sixth sense bristled with fear and she decided that she was quite fine with accepting George's possessiveness. Eventually they reached the alley and apparated back to her flat. Once they landed, Luna turned to George.
"That was a lot of fun George. The boys and I had a great time."
"So did we Luna. Thanks for coming along. Um…I…Merlin, this is hard. It's been a while. Luna, I was wondering, I know you've been through a lot and I don't know if this is too soon, but I was wondering…would you let me take you to dinner one night? No kids."
Luna was a bit startled. Dinner? A date? Was it too soon? She liked George. The Hogwarts' prankster had turned out to be quite a gentleman and a good father. Still, she wasn't sure. What would Rolf think? Actually, she knew Rolf wouldn't want her pining. He and George would have gotten on well if they'd had a chance to meet. George waited patiently while all these thoughts flew around Luna's head before she made a decision.
"George, I think I'd like that. Honestly, I'm not sure if it's too soon, but I'd like to try dinner and see how it goes."
"Brilliant! I understand Luna. If you aren't ready, just let me know. So, how about next Friday, say around seven?"
"That sounds good. I'll ask Ginny to look after the boys."
"I'm sure she will, although you do know she will have a minor fit when she finds out I'm taking you to dinner."
Luna laughed. She was quite aware of what her best friend would think and expected that Ginny would want a full testimonial after the date. The next day, she floo'd to the Potters for lunch and casually brought up the subject.
"Gin, I have a favor to ask. Can you babysit the boys next Friday night?"
"Sure Luna. Nothing planned but a quiet night at home for us. What about you?"
"George is taking me out to dinner."
Ginny's fork stopped half way to her mouth as she smirked at her friend.
"Oh, really…"
"Quit looking at me like that Gin. I'm not even sure I should be going to dinner, but he has been so nice lately and we had so much fun at the carnival yesterday, I decided to at least see how a dinner goes."
"Carnival? You went with George to that carnival?"
"Yes, along with Fred, Sander and Lorry. He thought the boys would enjoy it and he was right."
"Alright, well you have your babysitter. And, honestly Luna, I'm happy you're giving this a chance. As much as I hate to admit it, my brother has grown up and become a thoughtful, decent guy."
Luna nodded and the topic of discussion thankfully changed. She was glad that Ginny was happy for her, but she was still unsure enough in her own feelings that she didn't want to focus on the topic for long.
The following week went quickly for Luna. Her research at the Ministry was going well. Now that she had a system in place, she was able to get down to the real research, analyzing documents, translating, or repairing as needed, then indexing and filing them. She found herself learning small bits of information as she went and began to keep several journals with research data on specific mythological beasts. Evan and the others in the department were thrilled with her work and she had the added benefit of her growing work friendships to add to the intellectual stimulation that the job provided. Friday arrived and she got took a good while to get dressed before taking the boys to Ginny's. When she arrived, George was there dropping off Fred and Roxy. Seeing Luna, he let out a small chuckle.
"Well, I was going to be a gentleman and come pick you up, but it seems we share a babysitter."
Luna laughed a bit as Ginny reached to take the boys' bag from her. All the children were settled in the living room as Luna tried to give Ginny last minute instructions. Ginny just shook her head and gave her a look that reminded Luna distinctly of Molly.
"Luna, really? How often have I looked after them? I got this. Or, well, Harry and I have this. He looks happy."
Luna and George both looked over and saw Harry laying on his back with five children three and under crawling all over him. Both of them laughed and wished Ginny a good night as George offered Luna his arm and apparated them to muggle London. They landed in an alleyway and George led them around the front of a brightly lit Indian restaurant.
"I hope you like Indian food Luna. I know you said you liked spicy and you liked different, so I took a risk."
"Sounds wonderful George."
They entered the restaurant and were seated at a table near the back that George asked for. Once the server left them, George pulled his wand under the table and cast a quick privacy charm that would silence their conversation in the immediate area. With that done, they were free to talk in between ordering a number of small dishes of various types. George talked to Luna about the steps that went into his product development and the items that he was currently testing. Luna in turn talked about the research work she was doing at the Ministry and trying to find a way to organize and classify hundreds of years' worth of documentation. As the food dwindled, the topic of conversation switched from the safe subject of work to more personal matters.
"George, do you mind me asking, what happened with Angie? Where is she now?"
"No, I don't mind. It's a valid question. As far as I know, she is now playing Quidditch in the States. As for what happened, it's hard to explain. You know she and Fred dated off and on back in school. Fred was actually quite mad about her, but even then Angie wasn't a woman to be nailed down. She couldn't commit to one person and Fred was the jealous type. After the war, we were both grieving and fell together. I knew she was looking for me to be a replacement for Fred to help her through her guilt about what happened between them. A couple of times I tried to pull away, but she always pulled me back. We had some good times, but we had a lot of hard times. She played Quidditch for the first couple of years we were together and I can honestly say neither of us was completely faithful when she was traveling. We had some monumental rows, but then we would get back together and all would be wonderful for a little while. During one of our better times, we went off and eloped in Greece. My family had been dubious about the relationship and wasn't happy, but then Fred came along and they really did their best to welcome Angie. Fred was a complete surprise. She never wanted kids and he derailed her Quidditch career. Angie had a messed up childhood. She never told me everything, but what she did tell me was mostly when she was drunk and it was all bad. She never had a good example of family and had no idea how to build one of her own. Once Fred was about six months old, she basically gave up and I was essentially a single father. She was openly dating a couple of other guys and we barely saw her. The divorce didn't happen for almost a year after, but it was just a formality."
"Wow George, I'm sorry. I thought I had it hard, but at least I didn't have to slowly lose Rolf. It was hard and sudden, but then it was done."
George shrugged. "So, tell me about Rolf. I know a bit by reputation, but who was he really? He must have been special to capture you."
Luna drifted for a minute, as she remembered back to the day she had met Rolf. George smiled at the peaceful, happy look that came over her face as she contemplated where to begin.
"Rolf and I met in Sweden on Newt's last organized research trip. I was just an intern and he was his grandfather's second in command, leading the different research sites. I met him my second night in camp and the attraction was immediate. He was big and masculine, but also brilliant and sensitive with his friends. The boys take after him, which means I'll have a hard time keeping them in school robes. Rolf was well over two meters. The boys also got his coloring. When Rolf stood in the sun his hair almost appeared white. While his looks caught my attention at first, his intellect was truly stunning. He went to school in the States, but if he had gone to Hogwarts, I know he would have been Ravenclaw. We were a match from the very first. Everyone at the research camp knew it and most weren't surprised when we had a quick wedding two months after we met. It didn't seem too fast, we just knew we were meant for each other. Now that I lost him so soon, I'm glad we didn't waste time."
George reached across the table and laid his hand, palm up, offering, but not taking. Luna looked at his hand for a moment before deciding to accept the offer as she placed her hand in his.
"We've both been through a lot Luna. I wish life could have been easier for both of us, but I'm glad I get a chance to know you better."
As they talked, the music in the restaurant picked up and several traditional Indian dancers made their way to a small stage set up against one wall of the restaurant. Soon George and Luna were clapping along with the rest of diners and thoroughly enjoying the show. A couple of the dancers left the stage and started to circulate among the tables, picking customers to dance with. Soon they reached George and Luna's table and the two of them were up and dancing along for several minutes. When the dancers moved on to another table, they kept dancing through the end of the song before collapsing back in their chairs. After a couple more songs, George paid for the check and escorted Luna out of the restaurant. By silent agreement, they started walking and Luna found her arm linked in George's. When she realized, she was a bit surprised, but decided she didn't mind.
"I had a great time tonight Luna. I haven't had that much fun in quite a while."
"So did I George. I'll be honest, I wasn't sure about going out with you, but this was fun."
"So, do you think you'd like to go out again? Are you ready? I really like you, but I don't want to push."
Luna sighed. "I understand, but it has been almost a year. I didn't think I'd ever be ready, but I suppose since we already knew each other it makes it easier. I'd enjoy seeing you again."
George smiled and they continued walking for a bit, before looking around and realizing that they had reached a questionable neighborhood and it was getting late.
"I guess we should get back and pick up our kids. Thanks for a great night Luna."
"Thank you George."
"Before we go, can I kiss you?"
Luna nodded and leaned up toward him as George planted a chaste, but firm kiss on her mouth. Luna responded and the kiss deepened for several seconds. Both felt a sudden shift in the air and stepped back with a bit of shock as they smiled at each other. Then they looked around, saw no one nearby, and apparated back to the Potters. Ginny was waiting and looked at them both slyly.
"So, good date?"
George chuckled. "Yes little sister, we had a nice dinner. How were the kids?"
"Oh, they're fine. All sleeping now. I will say that I don't think I want five of my own."
Luna laughed and followed her friend to the guest room where the boys were sleeping. She carefully tucked them into their stroller while trying not to wake them. As she left, she hugged Ginny and Harry goodbye and gave them her thanks. Then she looked at George and thanked him again for dinner. It had been a good first date.
