A/N: Title from Heat Waves by Glass Animals. No beta. Rating may change. Let me know of interested. Enjoy!

It wasn't supposed to turn out like this. Luna Lovegood is her best friend... or she used to be. Things look to be heading for the worst.

Ginny can't think of a single time she has seen Luna actually cry. Then again she hadn't spent much time with her personally until recent years. Contrary to some people's belief, Luna and Ginny weren't really friends until later in Hogwarts.

Sure, they live not far from each other where fields ran wild and homes are far and few in between, but Luna was more reclusive in her art and her hunger for magical creatures knowledge while Ginny had far too many brothers to not have her time taken up one way or another. It wasn't as if they never played together as children. There were times that having too many brothers was way too much and the youngest Weasley needed some breathing room. Though she intended to take up that time alone, there were moments where she purposely traveled in the direction of the Lovegood home in the hopes for the only company she could sometimes stand.

She'd fine the girl chasing down magical creatures that she swears doesn't actually exist, but the blonde was - still is - insistent on her views and not bothered by Ginny's lack of belief. Or there would be times that she'd help her plant flowers and other varieties of plants. Ginny had told her she liked watching her paint, and Luna said the most lovely of moments were the ones when Ginny - without the knowledge of Mrs. Weasley because she was stern about her smallest of children on a broom - would sneak out of the Burrow and fly up to Luna's room to have a little night time adventure, a nice cruise around the twilight sky.

She remembers interesting clothing choices, Mr. Lovegood encouraging his daughter to never believe anyone's disbelief unless proven wrong, and -

And then she remembers Luna's mother dying right in front of her child, how Luna's bright spacey orbs became just dazed eyes in the moments, days after. She didn't look dead inside but Ginny felt like maybe she was close.

Ginny hadn't seen her cry, but she's never had to deal with that heavy of a loss before and walking away was easier as Luna and Xenophilias became each other's top priority. The occasional hang out, their brief flights underneath the moon became nonexistent, and Ginny went back to dealing with multiple brothers, a friendly father and her own, very much alive, strict but loving mother.

For the next year and so, their little friendship seemed to have never happened at all.

It hadn't been until they became members of the DA that their friendship really blossomed, and blossom it did. It became something Ginny would have scoffed at just months ago, but what it became - the good it provided in her life - is starting to wilt.

Luna is crying here though. She isn't sobbing but Ginny wonders how someone could still look so dreamy while eyes become red and drops of tears slowly hit the cold castle floor.

"That's perfectly alright, Ginny. I knew it wasn't real anyway."

It cut deeper than any argument or heartbreak Ginny has ever had with any of her old partners. The gentle squeeze on her forearm that she thinks was meant to be comforting was anything but. Luna's hand was cold like Ginny had discovered not long ago almost always were.

She never said it wasn't real.

"Luna - " Ginny's voice breaks.

She wonders if Luna hears it because there's a shriek coming from the Great Hall and their little bubble of solitude is interrupted as they are reminded that they aren't alone. Peeves chases after a first year Hufflepuff running past them, taunting them and laughing. Momentarily distracted, Luna is gone by the time Ginny turns to look back at her.

It wasn't supposed to turn out like this.

But Ginny made a ridiculous plan months earlier. It was one full of stupidity and bravery, foolishness and hunger, and it was all because of her crush on Harry Potter that had came back to her during her fourth year at Hogwarts.

Ginny huffed in frustration as she stormed up to the Gryfindor tower. This was all her fault brought on by her own nerve. Now she needed to fix it.