AN: Good afternoon everyone and happy Thursday. Things have been hectic at work and at home this week and in life in general but I hope to update more in the future. I have a pretty bad cold but I hope it will be gone by Monday but we'll see what happens. Once again anything you recognize is JK Rowling's and anything you don't is mine.
Luna POV
I ignored the other Gryffindors and continued to read the Quibbler. It was hard to read while the others talked and ate the food off the trolley but I really wanted to figure out how to turn my enemy's ears into kumquats. I wanted to try it on Cho Chang. She was mean, it had been only one time I had caught her at it but she stole one of my sets of shoes and a necklace.
The door to the compartment opened and two people walked in. The boy was tall, very tall, and redhead with a nose that was slightly too big for his face. He was kind of scrawny and had bright blue eyes and seemed to be completely covered with freckles. I knew exactly who he was even though I had never spoken to him before. Ron Weasley. He set an owl cage on the floor that was hooting shrilly.
The girl was different, she was short and skinny and holding a cat carrier. She had bushy brown hair and matching brown eyes that seemed rather flat and boring. My opinion changed the moment her eyes locked on Neville Longbottom. The flatness of her eyes was completely replaced by a strange warmth. It took me a moment to realize what that warmth was... ohhhh...
I quickly turned to look at Neville but he didn't seem to notice that Hermione Granger was all but in love with him. When she realized that Neville hadn't even looked up from the Chocolate Frog Card he was reading over her shoulders slumped and the warmth all but vanished.
I winced as she sat down next to me her shoulders thrown back, a determined look on her face. My eyes caught Harry's and he was looking between Hermione and Neville, a frown on his face. I quickly caught his eye and discretely pressed my finger to my lips.
Ron sat down next to Harry, breaking our eye contact, and snatched a Chocolate Frog from the table and quickly ripped it open.
"I'm starving!" He said shoving the frog into his mouth. I frowned and turned back to my magazine. It was when I was halfway through one of the runes when I felt it, someone's eyes on me. I looked up slowly trying not to grimace. It was Harry. His eyes kept flicking to me. Our eyes met for a moment and I stiffened in shock my heart pounding in my chest. He smiled tentatively and I blinked owlishly feeling my cheeks warm. I quickly blurted out the first thing that popped into my head.
"You went to the Yule Ball with Padma Patil," I said letting my eyes rest on Ron.
Everyone turned to look at me and it made me feel warm. I ignored them and made my eyes stay on Ron. He quickly chewed something and swallowed.
"Yeah, I know I did," he said, looking mildly surprised. My heart was still pounding loudly in my chest.
"She didn't enjoy it very much," I said quickly. "She doesn't think you treated her very
well, because you wouldn't dance with her. I don't think I'd have minded," I added thoughtfully, after a moment. Yes, my heart was finally getting back to normal and I sighed. "I don't like dancing very much."
I quickly retreated behind The Quibbler before I could lock eyes with Harry again. The others were snickering but I ignored them trying to get back into the Runes. I had only been in the Ancient Runes class for a year. This was much harder than what I had learned from Professor Babbling. I was frowning over one of the runes when I tuned into what the others were saying.
"I'll make Goyle do lines, it'll kill him, he hates writing," Ron said happily. He lowered his voice to a low grunting sound and, screwing up his face in a look of pained concentration, mimed writing in midair. "I… must… not… look…like… a… baboon's… backside."
Everyone laughed, but nobody laughed harder than I did. I had accidentally let out a scream of mirth that caused a snowy owl to wake up and flap her wings indignantly and a ginger cat to leap up into the luggage rack, hissing. I laughed so hard the Quibbler slipped out of my grasp, slid down my legs and on to the floor.
"That was funny!" I gasped trying to control my laughter.
My eyes swam with tears as I gasped for breath, staring at Ron. Utterly nonplussed, he looked around at the others, who were now laughing at the expression on Ron's face and at my prolonged laughter.
"Are you taking the mickey?" Ron said, frowning at me. I ignored him and wiped away a tear.
"Baboon's… backside!" I said giggling.
Ginny was giggling, Neville looked nonplussed, Hermione blinked quickly frowning and Harry had a small smile twitching his lips. I moved my foot slightly and stiffened when it brushed against Harry's shoe. His eyes snapped to our feet and he tilted his head to the side a small frown on his face.
"Can I have a look at this?" He asked eagerly. I nodded and almost gasped when Harry grazed his hand against the top of my naked foot. It was deliberate.
I blinked owlishly while Harry flipped through the Quibbler. My eyes slid to the snowy owl that kept fluttering her wings. She seemed to disapprove of loud noises and I was unfortunately loud. I was still trying to control my giggling.
"Anything good in there?" Ron asked as Harry closed the magazine.
"Of course not," Hermione said scathingly, before Harry could answer. "The Quibbler's rubbish, everyone knows that."
I stiffened and all but snarled.
"Excuse me," I snapped darkly. "My father's the editor."
"I - oh," Hermione started, looking embarrassed. "Well… it's got some interesting… I mean, it's quite…"
"I'll have it back, thank you," I said coldly, and leaning forwards I snatched the magazine out of Harry's hands. His eyes were apologetic but I ignored him and raised the Quibbler to hide the Boy Who Lived and his friends from view.
AN: Please Review! It helps so much more than you realize. Reviews make me happy and when I'm happy I think about the story more. The more I think about it the more I create new twists and turns for the story and I end up updating more. Which in the makes everyone happy.